Indigenous Futurisms

Exhibition Subtitle

Explorations in Art and Play

Indigenous Futurisms, according to Grace Dillon (2016), envision Native futures, Indigenous hopes, and dreams recovered by rethinking the past in a new framework. It weaves traditional knowledge and culture with futuristic ideas and settings.

The exhibition brings together graphics, comics, science fiction, and game play to create a provocative space of engagement and thought about Indigenous futures and possibilities. The content and graphics involved with Native American and Indigenous representation in these genres are fraught with embedded stereotypes and in some cases, these depictions are viewed as deeply offensive and racist.

Native American artists and game designers actively engage with these concerns by creating new spaces, environments and platforms for the expression of visual sovereignty. Games and artwork are created, mediated and informed from rich cultural foundations alongside technical media expertise.

The visual artists in the exhibition explore graphics, SF, gaming and superheroes. Game designers engage with language, role play, strategy and cooperative play to create new worlds in computer, tabletop and card games.

We invite you to explore these worlds for yourself through the publications, computer games, and table top games or just sit and enjoy the special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope screening in Diné (Navajo).

Visual Artists:

• Sonny Assu
• Andy Everson
• Jason Garcia
• Duhon James
• Steven Paul Judd
• Cara Romero
• Diego Romero
• Ryan Singer
• Arigon Starr
• Michael Toya, Jr.
• Jeffrey Veregge
• Charletta Yazzie

Game Designers:

• Ashlee Bird
• Gerry Ebalaroza-Tunnell
• Elizabeth LaPensée
• Maize Longboat
• Nathan Powless-Lynes
• Allen Turner

*Grace Dillion is credited with coining the term, Indigenous Futurisms. For further reading see Grace Dillon (2016), Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.