Abstract

Indigenous Futurisms is an interdisciplinary framework that reimagines the future through Indigenous 
epistemologies, temporalities, and creative practices across literature, film, and new media. Emerging as a response 
to ongoing settler colonialism and cultural erasure, it challenges linear, Western conceptions of time by 
foregrounding cyclical, relational, and non-linear understandings often articulated through the concept of 
transmotion. This study examines how Indigenous artists and writers employ speculative and science fiction 
modes to assert sovereignty, cultural continuity, and agency while engaging histories of colonization and 
envisioning decolonized futures. In literature, Indigenous Futurisms reclaims narrative authority through 
storytelling that intertwines past, present, and future, emphasizing resilience, memory, and world-building. In 
film, it utilizes visual and narrative strategies to represent layered temporalities and Indigenous cosmologies, 
while fostering community engagement and collaborative production. In new media, including digital art, 
interactive platforms, and virtual environments, Indigenous Futurisms expands participatory storytelling, 
enabling co-creation, knowledge sharing, and the preservation of cultural protocols. Across these media, the 
framework highlights the importance of ethics, representation, and community-centered methodologies. 
Ultimately, Indigenous Futurisms operates as both a critical lens and a creative practice that advances decolonial 
thought, reclaims Indigenous presence in futurity, and fosters global dialogues across the Global South and Global 
North.