“Two-Spirit and Indicaer” Speculative Fiction Anthology, Love in times after brings together nine First Nations voices, and makes extensive use of inclusive writing, Cree and Obijwe language as well.
Posted at 8:30 a.m.
But don’t let that premise distract you from this fascinating and moving collection, crafted under the direction of Joshua Whitehead, an Oji-Cree/Nehiyow member of Peguis First Nation, Manitoba, and author of the novel Jonny Appleseed (Inkwell memory).
We dive into futuristic stories that unfold against the backdrop of the apocalypse, climatic disasters or segregation, and meet queer, two-spirit, trans, non-binary or even downright posthuman Indigenous characters. Protagonists who live in the next world, the one where everything has collapsed: an AI in the body of a rat who will rebel against his pre-programmed destiny; a mother and her daughter who refuse interplanetary colonization to remain on this Mother Earth that everyone is abandoning; “synth-kids” fleeing in a tree-spaceship to avoid being slaughtered.
To these dark dystopias, these short stories have the audacity to respond with utopia and transport readers to tomorrows where hope flourishes. “And now I know the only way to survive the apocalypse is to make the world in our image. So, let’s get started right away,” writes the 2spiritual narrator of “How to Survive the Apocalypse as an Indigenous Girl” (Kai Minosh Pyle). These stories of resilience and love mend the broken thread of a humanity that has lost its meaning, while the wisdom and ancestral knowledge of the First Nations are the keystone towards the reconstruction, even the reinvention of the human species. , tracing the bridge between the past and the future.
Love in times after
Collective under the direction of Joshua Whitehead, translated from English by Sophie Vaillot
Alto
204 pages