Thread by @Rachel_Gutin

The sixth panel I attended at #ConZealand this year was “Infinite Entangled Futures - Indigenous Voices in Conversation,” with @ShiningComic, @RoanhorseBex, @understatesmen and @toniwaiaroha, moderated by @sloanesloane.

This was a fascinating and enjoyable panel.

This thread will include some of the things the panelists said. I’m copying this over from my handwritten notes, so assume I’ve paraphrased unless I put something in quotes.

First, the panelists introduced themselves. Among other things, each shared which indigenous tribe they are a part of. Because most of these tribal names were unfamiliar to me, I didn’t know how to spell them, so I looked them up afterward on author websites and twitter.

I was able to find the information for four out of five panelists:

@sloanesloane: Indigenous hapa mix
@ShiningComic: Lipan Apache
@RoanhorseBex: Okhay Owingeh
@toniwaiaroha: Ngāti Maniapoto

@understatesmen is Māori, but I couldn’t find his tribe.

At the beginning of the panel, I learned the term Indigenous Futurism.

@sloanesloane shared this take on it: Indigenous Futurism is informed by Afrofuturism. It’s mostly but not entirely connected to science fiction, and incorporates our identities.

The first question @sloanesloane asked the panelists: What are you working on, and how are you cultivating indigenous elements?

The panelists answered this question, and also used it as a jumping-off point for a broader conversation:

From @ShiningComic: I’ve never read a Lipan Apache protagonist. My own characters are Lipan Apache, but I think it’s me writing what I know, being authentic to myself.

From @RoanhorseBex: Black Sun is epic fantasy inspired by pre-Columbian Indigenous Americans. It’s a reaction to epic fantasy in general. I wanted to explore worlds rich in those cultures. Their astronomy, their architecture, their trade routes.

And @RoanhorseBex added: Indigenous futurism engages with the future, but it also engages with the past and present. It includes us and our experience.

From @toniwaiaroha: I’ve been working on writing Māori in space. I grew up not seeing myself in SFF, so I wanted to do something for myself.

And @toniwaiaroha agreed on including the past. She talked about Māori as moving forward, but also looking backward. For example, taking their techniques, their learning, and their traditions and going to a new world.

Someone, possibly @toniwaiaroha, made a comment about seafarers making great starfarers.

The conversation led @ShiningComic to a realization: an important component of her book is the protagonist’s 6th great grandmother and her impact - it’s unconscious indigenous futurism!

And @sloanesloane added: A lot of us share a similar perspective on time and space.

From @understatesmen: Māori have a connection to the land. The destruction of a planet is really traumatic. I don’t think anything but science fiction can explore colonial violence in an accessible way - like The Avengers did.

From @RoanhorseBex: Themes like Star Trek’s final frontier, and The Martian’s man vs. space are very Western concepts, coming from Manifest Destiny and conquering Indigenous people. Indigenous Futurism gives us different ways to approach new planets and space exploration.

From @toniwaiaroha: I want to see more of that. Stories with a conscious mindset. Becoming part of the environment and working with it, not just putting a stamp on it.

(I think she also noted that she does this in her own work.)

From @ShiningComic: I want more about how important our connection with the land is for us. It’s familial. To leave Earth would have to be life or death. Can we think of a future of staying on Earth and not destroying it?

From @sloanesloane: I’m really into biopunk. The world is alive, and us as the stewards.

Then, @sloanesloane asked what the panelists are grappling with creatively.

@ShiningComic: Writing the next YA. I want to tell the story in a way reminiscent of traditional storytelling, so how can I present it in a way that’s comfortable to the reader?

And @RoanhorseBex talked about the difficulties of writing the middle book of a series, and how she needs to know the end of the third book in order to write it.

@understatesmen also talked about second book challenges, in his case, a broadening of scope.

From @toniwaiaroha: Finding time to write. Also, grappling with authority. Imposter syndrome about writing about and using Māori culture. Giving myself authority to use my voice and tell my story.

From @sloanesloane: Indigenous artists have respect for elders, but as artists, we have to challenge it.

Then, the panelists answered questions from the audience.

The first question asked for the panelists’ thoughts on representation vs. appropriation.

From @sloanesloane: As a mixed indigenous person, I always worry about appropriation.

From @understatesmen: I didn’t know I was Māori until I was a teen, but other Māori say I know the language and the culture and I have a genealogy, so it’s fine. But I still feel appropriative. And if I don’t know where the line is, I have a duty of care to find someone who does.

From @ShiningComic, about using Lipan language in her books: We’re undergoing language revitalization right now. So I consult with a tribal linguist on the spelling to ensure its matches what we want for the future. And it’s tough, because fantasy is not a textbook.

From @RoanhorseBex: The line is fuzzy. I’ve been accused of appropriation. Everyone has doubts about representing their own culture.

More from @RoanhorseBex: I wrote a book set in a Dine world because I lived there.There are a lot of stereotypical Native characters in urban fantasy, so I wanted a character who knew her culture and her land, surrounded by her own mythology.

More from @RoanhorseBex: The nature of art is we have to push boundaries, or white people tell our stories and we tell theirs. Take chances. Sometimes, they succeed, and sometimes they fail, but be brave.

From @toniwaiaroha: My favorite writing is my riskiest. Ask yourself, am I the right person to tell this story? If you’re unsure, ask someone.

@RoanhorseBex: And come with integrity. I had an outside Navajo reader.

The next question was about space opera’s colonialist tropes and whether Indigenous Futurism can subvert that or reject it.

From @RoanhorseBex: Both. Engage with colonial experience. Talk about reciprocal relationships. Nurturing relationships. Or recenter our stories (Native stories). We don’t have to be in conversation with colonialism.

From @toniwaiaroha: Both, but also none. Sometimes, we can write random, joyous, weird stuff, and that’s also indigenous futurism.

From @understatesmen: There’s the trope of taming the land. But we have the concept of stewardship, working with the land, not against it, and we use that approach.

From @RoanhorseBex: We should be allowed to be complex, messy and weird. We’re not always noble and wise. Embrace the whole spectrum of humanity.

And we should be allowed to be imaginative and creative - not educational. We don’t hold white writers to that standard.

From @ShiningComic: So many of our stories are comedy, naughty, not dignified. There’s so much variety.

The next question was about ideas for more Indigenously organized stories in science fiction, and what concepts the panelists want to see.

From @sloanesloane: More spirituality in SF.

From @RoanhorseBex: The idea of an indigenous diaspora. So many of us are fractured from our cultures. That’s still an indigenous experience, the journey back to community whether it’s successful or not, whether the community is good or not. The outsider in their own community.

From @understatesmen: Science fiction now includes found family. In Māori, found family is part of family. I want to see that more from Māori writers.

From @toniwaiaroha: Also, how important it is for child-rearing. Kids move from house to house and everyone raises them.

From @ShiningComic: The acquisition of knowledge about the universe and the natural world. Indigenous scientific knowledge was complex even hundreds of years ago. So why not incorporate our understanding of things?

From @toniwaiaroha: The Māori framework of science as a scientific worldview. As a scientist, I’m trying to bring these together - navigation by stars, planting by stars, resource management.

Advice to writers:

@ShiningComic: Be persistent. We need your stories.

@RoanhorseBex: Write *your* story. Don’t try to figure out the market. Be brave.

More advice:

@understatesmen: Write things you think are cool and interesting. Embrace what makes you you and put it in.

@toniwaiaroha: Have a cool idea? Put it in. And then put in the next one.

@sloanesloane: You won’t run out of ideas. Also, finish the thing.

The panel ended with a list of recent and upcoming works by all of the panelists:

From @sloanesloane: A Map of the Sun just came out on 8/4.

From @understatesmen: Dawnhounds just won the Sir Julius Vogel Award.

From @ShiningComic: Elatsoe comes out on 8/25

From @RoanhorseBex: Black Sun comes out in October.

From @toniwaiaroha: Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy is an anthology available now.

This panel was amazing, and I want to thank the panelists for sharing so much about their backgrounds, their experiences, and their thoughts on Indigenous Futurism.

I'm writing up threads like this for a number of the panels I attended. This is my fourth panel thread, and I'm collecting them here: twitter.com/i/events/12922…

Happy reading!

A clarification on the tweet higher up that mentioned The Avengers:

https://twitter.com/understatesmen/status/1293748045419384834