What is futurism?
Futurism is the practice of imagining cultures and ways of being still existing far into the future. Futurisms is a practise of visioning and manifesting Indigeneity into the future. Futurity is not only for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples but for everyone and everything on the earth.
Why is futurism important?
Depending on your positionality and privilege, it may be difficult to understand why this is important or what happens when we discuss futurity and Indigenous futurity more specifically. But futurisms is important for many BIPOC communities and Indigenous communities specifically because they have been actively erased and continue to be today. Ancestors were erased from the landscape and removed from their territories for the expansion of Canada, thousands of children were taken into residential schools to “kill the Indian in the child”; thousands of children have been and continue to be apprehended by Children’s Aid Society and other organizations; Indigenous men make up 23% of those incarcerated; Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than non-Indigenous women all while Indigenous Peoples only make up 4.9% of the Canadian Population (Statistics Canada).
In the video below, Richard Hill talks about how the traditional worldviews and governance of the Haudenosaunee are being revived and adapted to contemporary times through the Two-Row wampum in Voice from Here (Episode 4) (13 minutes)
Information Box Group
Question for Reflection
The Two-Row wampum, and philosophy is based on equality, autonomy, and non-interference.
Though this is the oldest recorded agreement between Indigenous peoples (the Haudenosaunee) and European settlers (the Dutch), Six Nations Historian Rick Hill maintains that its tenets can be adapted to contemporary times. Reconsider the quote by Murray Sinclair that opened this training: “education got us into this mess, and education will get us out of this mess” (CBC, 2015).
How can we as educators ensure we are engaging Indigenous voices in our classrooms, and supporting the revival of Indigenous systems of governance in our work, and daily actions, from our “row”?