Where No Michif Has Gone Before: The Form and Function of Métis Futurisms

Abstract

Indigenous futurisms, a term coined by Grace Dillon in 2003, and indebted to Afrofuturism, seeks to describe a movement of art, literature, games, and other forms of media that express Indigenous perspectives on the future, present, and past. This research outlines the scope of Métis futurisms as being a specific kind of Indigenous futurism, rooted in otipêyimisiw-itâpisiniwina, Métis worldviews. Using autoethnography and research-creation, I wrote four speculative fiction short stories set within the kinscapes of Métis from manitow-sâkihikan as a form of what Scott Lyons calls rhetorical sovereignty. Each story is an exercise in worldbuilding/prefiguration as a way of imagining otherwise, with the intent to kwêskîmonaw, change our own shapes and destinies as Métis people.