The popularity of Indigenous-authored science fiction art, literature, film, and even video games has exploded in recent years. More than just a niche interest, these works have material effects on the possibilities young Indigenous people envision for themselves. Contrary to research on the negative effects of Native American stereotypes on youth, positive representations of Native peoples found in Indigenous science fiction portray alternative futurisms to those represented in mainstream science fiction. Developed in concert with traditional knowledge and value systems, alternative futurisms as depicted in Indigenous science fiction forefront Indigenous agency in a genre where Indigeneity is either absent or made irrelevant. This article investigates the ways in which Indigenous science fiction creators leverage traditional knowledge systems to paint a picture of Indigenous futures that depart from mainstream science fiction in material ways.
BrandtC. B.CarloneH. (2014). Ethnographies of science education: Situated practices of science learning for social/political transformation. Ethnography and Education, 7(2), 143–150.
ChambersD. W. (1983). Stereotypical images of the scientist: The Draw-a-scientist Test. Science Education, 67(2), 255–265.
12.
CorburnJ. (2002). Environmental justice, local knowledge, and risk: The discourse of a community-based cumulative exposure assessment. Environmental Management, 29(4), 451–466.
13.
DavisH.ToddZ. (2017). On the importance of a date, or decolonizing the Anthropocene. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 16(4), 761–780.
14.
DillonG. L. (2012). Walking the clouds: An anthology of indigenous SF. University of Arizona Press.
15.
FergusonR. F. (1998). Teachers’ perceptions and expectations and the Black–White test score gap. In JencksC. (Ed.), The Black–White test score gap (pp. 217–317). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
16.
FinsonK. D. (2002). Drawing a scientist: What we do and do not know after fifty years of drawings. School Science and Mathematics, 102(7), 335–345.
17.
FinsonK. D.BeaverJ. B.CramondB. L. (1995). Development and field test of a checklist for the Draw-a-Scientist Test. School Science and Mathematics, 95(4), 195–205.
KocajA.KuhlP.JansenM.PantH. A.StanatP. (2018). Educational placement and achievement motivation of students with special educational needs. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 55, 63–83.
27.
LaPenséeE. (Director). (2016). Hands to the sky [Motion Picture].
28.
LaPenséeE. (Director). (2018). The Skoden Chronicles [Motion Picture].
29.
LawJ.JoksS. (2019). Indigeneity, science and difference: Notes on the politics of how. Science, Technology and Human Values, 44, 424–447.
30.
LempertW. (2014). Decolonizing encounters of the third kind: Alternative futuring in native SF film. Visual Anthropology Review, 30(2), 164–176.
31.
LempertW. (2018). Generative hope in the postapocalyptic present. Cultural Anthropology, 33(2), 202–212.
32.
MacGregorD. C. (2018). Indigenous knowledge systems. In CastreeN.HulmeM.ProctorJ.D. (Eds.), Companion to environmental studies (Vol. 703, No. 709, pp. 703–709). Routledge in Association with GSE Research.
33.
McDuffieT. E.Jr. (2001). Scientists-geeks & nerds?Science and Children, 38(8), 16–19.
34.
McGregorD. (2008). Anishnaabe-Kwe, traditional knowledge, and water protection. Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers De La Femme, 26(3–4), 26–30.
35.
Medak-SaltzmanD. (2017). Coming to you from the Indigenous future: Native women, speculative film shorts, and the art of the possible. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 29(1), 139–171.
36.
MenziesC. R. (Ed.). (2006). Traditional ecological knowledge and natural resource management. University of Nebraska Press.
37.
MihesuahD. A.WilsonA. C. (Eds.). (2004). Indigenizing the academy: Transforming scholarship and empowering communities. University of Nebraska Press.
NelsonM. K. (2013). Protecting the sanctity of native foods. In PrughT.StarkeL. (Eds.), State of the world 2013 (pp. 201–209). Island Press.
40.
NewallC.GonsalkoraleK.WalkerE.ForbesG. A.HighfieldK.SwellerN. (2018). Science education: Adult biases because of the child’s gender and gender stereotypicality. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 55, 30–41.
PalmaB. D. (Director). (2000). Mission to Mars [Motion Picture].
43.
PierottiR. (2010). Indigenous knowledge, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Routledge.
44.
PrastE. J.Van de Weijer-BergsmaE.MiočevićM.KroesbergenE. H.Van LuitJ. E. (2018). Relations between mathematics achievement and motivation in students of diverse achievement levels. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 55, 84–96.
45.
PriceM. W. (2002). Anishinaabé star knowledge. Winds of Change, 17(3), 52–56.
46.
RiederJ. (2012). Colonialism and the emergence of SF. Wesleyan University Press.
47.
RoanhorseR. (2017). Decolonizing SF and imagining futures: An Indigenous futurisms. Strange Horizons.
48.
RobynL. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and technology: Creating environmental justice in the twenty-first century. American Indian Quarterly, 26, 198–220.
49.
SingerB. R. (2001). Wiping the war paint off the lens: Native American film and video (Vol. 10). University of Minnesota Press.
Tuhiwai SmithL. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. University of Otago Press.
55.
WhitepigeonC. F. (2017). Daughter of dawn and darkness: Spark aflight. Whitepigeon Publishing.
56.
WhyteK. P. (2016). Our ancestors’ dystopia now: Indigenous conservation and the Anthropocene. In Routledge companion to the environmental humanities. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2770047
57.
WhyteK. P. (2018). Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1, 224–242.
58.
WillowA. J. (2012). Strong hearts, native lands: The cultural and political landscape of Anishinaabé anti-clearcutting activism. State University of New York Press.
