Unit 2: Film Studies

Comparing Science
Fiction to Indigenous
Futurisms
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 Activity #1- Science Fiction
Instructions
1. Draw a full page Venn Diagram in your notes →

2. *Click this link and write a word/idea that relates to Science

Fiction https://pollev.com/astephenson001
If you are stuck, think of elements from the short stories or novel we have read that make the story fall into the science
fiction genre
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 Grace Dillon
❖ Anishinaabe academic and author. She is a professor in the Indigenous
Nations Studies Program at Portland State Universit y.
❖ Coined the term “Indigenous Futurisms” in the early 2000s

"Writers of Indigenous futurisms sometimes intentionally experiment with, sometimes

intentionally dislodge, sometimes merely accompany, but invariably change the perimeters
of science fiction. Liberated from the constraints of genre expectations, or what 'serious'
Native authors are supposed to write, they have room to play with setting, character, and
dialogue; to stretch boundaries; and, perhaps most significantly, to reenlist the science of
indigeneity in a discourse that invites discerning readers to realize that Indigenous science is
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not just complementary to a perceived western enlightenment but is indeed integral to a

refined twenty-first-century sensibility" (Dillon 2012, 3).
 What is Indigenous Futurism?

Through science fiction narratives (and related sub-genres), Indigenous intellectuals,

artists and authors express Indigenous perspectives of the future, past, and present.

Indigenous Futurisms is a multimedia cultural movement consisting of art, literature,

comics, games, and more. This movement constructs science, technology, history and the
future from an Indigenous perspective. Through this approach to storytelling, Indigenous
ways of knowing, traditional stories, historical or contemporary politics, and other cultural
realities are not frozen in time, but rather are used to reconstruct our understanding of the
world and the future.
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 In this first ever anthology of Indigenous
science fiction Grace Dillon collects
some of the finest examples of the craft
with contributions by Native American,
First Nations, Aboriginal Australian and
New Zealand Maori authors. The
collection includes seminal authors such
as Gerald Vizenor, historically important
contributions often categorised as
"magical realism" by authors like Leslie
Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie and
authors more recognizable to science
fiction fans like William Sanders and
Stephen Graham Jones. Dillon's
engaging introduction situates the
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pieces in the larger context of science

fiction and its conventions. (From The
University of Arizona Press)
 The Five Elements of Science Fiction Reimagined
Biskaaniiyang
Native
Environmental Native "Returning to Ourselves" Slipstream
Sustainability Apocalypse These stories
Dillon summarizes
Contact These stories of the end
foreground the

These stories address the

& Indigenous of the world which seem intersections of the importance of
far too real for race, technology, Native slipstream in
human-human Scientific Literacy Indigenous and power to Indigenous literature
interactions, as well as These stories pose a communities are as follows: “Native
human-alien interactions juxtaposition between
recognize the
(re)imagined in reverse. slipstream views
of space travel. The western scientific lasting effects of
They tell stories of time as pasts,
authors speculate about knowledge and revolution, the colonization. They
presents, and
moments of discovery Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous perspective challenge the
It puts the "science" futures that flow
and colonization that of Apocalypse, and structures of
back into science futuristic together like
challenges the reader to inequality and
fiction, and it places reconstructions of currents in a
recognize their own highlight the effects
the Indigenous sovereignties. They
biases. of colonialism in navigable stream”
create space for
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protagonists in the role

of scientists and empowerment and order to recover
leaders driving efforts healing in the present Indigenous ways of
for environmental from past tragedies. knowing and being.
sustainability.
 Biidaaban (When the Dawn
Comes)
https://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/biidaaban-the-dawn-comes/
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 Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWjnYKyiUB8&list=PLJyxSYLtnB0
HTab9ldgEHWo3mpJ9BBxXn&t=2s
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 Now….
Add elements of indigenous futurism to the other side of your Venn diagram
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 Think-Pair-Share

Talk with a partner and discuss the similarities between the two of them adding them to your venn diagram
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 Journal Entry #3

-Take 5 minutes to complete journal entry #3

-Once you have finished, you can work on the vocabulary

sheet which is on the google classroom or I have paper copies
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 You can just add them as backgrounds.
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 Add your title here
If you are presenting a website, an internet product or an app, you
can use this laptop mockup to showcase it.

Just replace the screenshot with your own.

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 Add your title here
If you are presenting
a website, an internet
product or an app,
you can use this
smartphone mockup
to showcase it.

Just replace the

screenshot with your
own.
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 Add your title here
If you are presenting
a website, an internet
product or an app,
you can use this
tablet mockup to
showcase it.

Just replace the

screenshot with your
own.
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