Kristina Baudemann’s The Future Imaginary in Indigenous North American Arts and Literatures is a profound and deeply engaging exploration of the intersections between sf and the anti-colonial forms of speculative fictions shaped by Native American and First Nations epistemologies. Critically engaging with the ways in which artists and writers envision alternative futures that counteract colonial narratives and stereotypes, this book analyzes the cultural, artistic, and literary contributions of Indigenous creators to speculative genres while reframing the broader scope of sf studies. By centering Native voices through engagement with literature, performance, art, and even cyberspace, Baudemann’s work is a landmark contribution to sf theory and Native studies that offers an expansive vision of Indigenous storytelling as a site of resistance, renewal, and re-imagination.
One of the primary interventions of Baudemann’s work is its emphasis on the concept of “future imaginaries,” indexed in no small part by the title of the monograph. The concept refers to how Indigenous artists and writers create visions of the future that are rooted in their cultural narratives and experiences. Future imaginaries challenge the dominant and often problematic colonial narratives found in mainstream literature and art that marginalize Indigenous perspectives or treat them as anachronistic functions of a normalized and colonial value system. The book critiques the historical narratives that have often depicted Native peoples as relics of the past, arguing instead for a recognition of their ongoing cultural vitality and agency especially in storytelling about the future which has been almost exclusively western and colonial in its aspirations. Baudemann’s work contains crucial insights into how Indigenous epistemologies and cosmologies inform sf, aligning with broader discussions on sovereignty, storytelling, and survivance while unsettling what we can expect from speculative narratives, the role of imagination in actualizing more desired futures, and assumptions about “primitive” versus “futuristic” signifiers in the genre of sf as a whole.
Baudemann’s book is an invaluable resource for a diverse range of readers and disciplines. Scholars and students of literature, cultural studies, American Indian and Indigenous studies, and sf studies will find this work particularly enlightening. Its accessibility, paired with rigorous scholarship, makes it suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses. The book provides an in-depth analysis of Indigenous speculative fiction and poetry and other forms of art, making it an ideal companion for courses on world literatures, postcolonial narratives, and genre studies. Through its interdisciplinary lens, the book is a compelling resource for exploring how contemporary Indigenous artists engage with speculative aesthetics. In addition, the text would be a compelling addition to seminar courses exploring race, identity, and futurisms, as well as courses on the environmental humanities, given its discussions about ecological thinking and Indigenous futurisms, particularly in chapter 4, “Apocalypse and the Archive in Gerald Vizenor’s Future World novels.”
Baudemann frames Indigenous storytelling and creators’ attempts to mobilize their archives of land, memory, experience, and dreams that settler colonialism is designed to stamp out as “apocryphal.” This is a clever approach that is woven throughout the chapters. It allows for “both/and” interpretations of speculative storytelling instead of “either/or” analyses that may dilute Indigenous discursive agency. In other words, we do not have to choose whether an Indigenous story is “speaking back” or “resisting” assimilation, settler colonialism, erasure, or genocide, or whether it is a wholly autochthonous tale. A story can shapeshift to meet the needs of Native peoples. This becomes most apparent in chapter 5, “Textuality and Futurity in Stephen Graham Jones’s The Fast Red Road, The Bird is Gone, and Ledfeather.” While the specific signifiers and aesthetics have changed over time, in traditional sf the future is often imagined as a space of technological advancement riddled with vocabularies of overt or implicit conquest. Alternatively, Baudemann highlights how Indigenous creators envision futures that prioritize ecological balance, communal well-being, and the revitalization of cultural traditions. Her exploration of Indigenous temporalities challenges the linear, progress-oriented structures that dominate Western science fiction, instead emphasizing cyclical and relational understandings of time. As a result, she opens new avenues to understand how the future is imagined in non-Western contexts.
By examining visual arts, digital media, and performance, Baudemann broadens the scope of sf studies to include forms of speculative expression that extend beyond the written word. This interdisciplinary approach enriches the field by incorporating diverse mediums and perspectives. For example, she takes a broad view of literature, noting that both virtual reality and cyberspace are extensions of literary narrative on the one hand and, on the other, traditional modes of Indigenous artistic expression, such as shell or more specifically, wampum, beadwork (borrowing from Penelope Kelsey and Eric Gansworth), as essentially binary codes that also function as containers for knowledge and story. She states, “While readers decode the letters of a book, the computer takes their place in abstracting, from data, an imaginary world” (51). In this way she is effective in collapsing the dubious and often problematic binary between “traditional” and “advanced” media in ways that do not oversimplify or essentialize Indigenous cultures.
Baudemann seamlessly weaves together analysis of literature, visual arts, film, and digital media, showing how Indigenous creators work across mediums to reimagine the future. This broad interdisciplinary approach enriches the reader’s understanding of the scope and significance of Indigenous futurisms. The text excels in grounding analyses in Indigenous philosophies and worldviews—refraining from imposing Western theoretical models—while drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems to interpret the works Baudemann examines. This method not only decolonizes the study of speculative genres but also illuminates the unique ways in which Native North American creators actualize futures entrenched in ancestral wisdom in specific geographic regions (since, for example, Indigenous epistemologies are fixed in their homelands). The book includes an impressive array of creators and works, from renowned writers such as Gerald Vizenor to emerging voices such as Darcie Little Badger and artists working in less conventional mediums such as performance. By showcasing such diversity, Baudemann demonstrates the vibrancy and heterogeneity of Indigenous speculative traditions, drawing at the same time from trans-Indigenous subjects such as sovereignty, temporality, ecological sustainability, and technological innovation in incisive and thought-provoking ways. Her discussion of Indigenous temporal frameworks, for example, is particularly compelling, as it challenges linear, colonial notions of time and offers alternative visions based on cyclical and relational understandings, referring to place-based Indigenous epistemologies as “Indigenous new media … integrated into a feedback loop with the land, the original circuit board” (57).
While The Future Imaginary is a groundbreaking work, there are a few areas where the text might be expanded or improved. Although the subtitle specifies “North American” arts and literatures, the book primarily focuses on creators from the United States and Canada, without much consideration of Indigenous Mexican or Caribbean voices. Baudemann’s analyses of these works are dense and thorough and I certainly appreciate what is already there. Expanding the geographic range, however, might enhance the book’s scope and relevance, especially given the transnational nature of many Indigenous communities. While Baudemann’s grounding in Indigenous philosophies and ways of knowing is a strength, some of the theoretical discussions may be challenging for readers unfamiliar with the philosophical underpinnings of Indigenous studies. Those scholars well-versed in sf studies, but not in Native American or Indigenous studies, may struggle with some of the critical theory and concepts she draws from such as survivance, Indigenous futurisms, and settler coloniality. A glossary or expanded introductory framing in the brief Introduction chapter would help bridge this gap for readers outside of academia or those new to the field of Indigenous studies. The book largely examines works in English, which is understandable given the focus on North America. More engagement with Indigenous languages or multilingual works could provide deeper insights into how language shapes speculative imaginaries (I am thinking, for example, of works that incorporate Native languages, such as Biidaaban [The Dawn Comes, 2018] and The Cave (2009)—both are Indigenous speculative fiction short films from First Nations creators). Finally, the text could have benefitted from more images. Baudemann cites and describes some amazing literature, performance art, and film, but there is only one reproduction of Indigenous artwork. More photographs would have been especially helpful to those readers less familiar with traditional Native North American artwork or new media.
Baudemann’s analysis of Indigenous artists who engage with speculative aesthetics provides a richer, more holistic view of the future imaginary in Indigenous creative practices. She posits that Indigenous art serves not only as a means of cultural expression but also as a vehicle for social change. By envisioning alternative futures, Indigenous creators can inspire younger generations to imagine possibilities beyond the limitations imposed by colonial narratives, thus fostering a sense of hope and empowerment. The Future Imaginary is a critical intervention in sf studies, a field long dominated by Western and colonial perspectives. Baudemann’s work challenges several prevailing assumptions. Baudemann positions Indigenous speculative works as not merely participating in the genre or existing as a subfield of sf studies but also transforming it. By centering Native North American ways of knowing, she critiques the Eurocentric frameworks that have historically defined sf and introduces alternative narratives that resist colonial paradigms. The Future is an essential text for anyone interested in Indigenous studies, sf, or the intersections of art and literature. Its interdisciplinary approach, emphasis on Indigenous epistemologies, and diverse range of creators make it a transformative contribution to the field. The book expands the possibilities of what sf can achieve as a genre if it carefully considers other ways of knowing/Native science without appropriating, flattening, or co-opting Indigenous speculative storytelling.
University of California Press