Welcome to the sounds of the Indigenous future: a hyperpresent now, melding the worlds within and beyond what we can hear, see and imagine. In collaboration with Kimiwan Zine’s new issue, we are proud to bring you the Indigenous Futurisms mixtape.
The creation story is a spaceship. That’s the space ndn motto. The creation story can also be a song; so we can sing our way to the stars. In Amiri Baraka’s Afrofuturist tale “Rhythm Travel,” songs can be used to travel through time.
With an understanding of the power of music, we collect sounds and rhythms here for the futurist ear.
The beats are powerful and transcendent. Whether you are traveling back in time to talk to ancestors or warp speeding forward to herd space sheep in the outer galaxies, this is the mix to take you there. It is the soundtrack for a liberated future drawn deeply from our collective pasts. In creating this playlist and indeed in all our futurist imaginings, we are deeply indebted to the Afrofuturists and the traditions they come from. All systems go; full speed ahead to the future.
The Indigenous Futurisms mixtape is a journey through the intertwined Afro-Indigenist histories of colonized life on our current planet, that reaches for decolonial worlds beyond the beyond. From 2oolman and Flying Lotus to King Britt and John Mohawk, Sun Ra and Savage Family to Princess Nokia and DJ Shub, from Boogey the Beat to Erykah Badu, Shabazz Palaces to Silver Jackson, Autechre to A Tribe Called Red, Darkstar to Ryan Dennison, through many other voices in between—this is a recombinant constellation of ideas and energies, sounds and forces. Dreams of new destinations out.
Where the supposed 'finality' of Star Trek's frontier meets the remixed linguistic flip of Navajo Star Wars, and where the sounds of comet landings and galactic space dust meet the 6th World encoded in Indigenous exploration of night-lit skies and interplanetary, opaque spaces, our people have always been moving. As we move, we discover where we've been, where we're going, and how far we've been travelling. The long continuum of our existence and resistance, our survival and survivance, is the work of expanding the now: where we "acknowledge the truth of history, the urgency of the present moment, the open horizon of the future".
Time to "clear some space out, so we can space out...".
The Indigenous Futurisms mixtape was conceived and compiled by @spacendn and @culturite—who mixed it on the holodeck of RPM's coastal spaceship.
DOWNLOAD: The Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape
Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape - Track List
NASA x John Mohawk - “War, Peace, Natives” x 2oolman - “Lost in America”
Flying Lotus - “Coronus, the Terminator”
The AfroFuturist Affair - “#BQF NonLocality Zine Soundtape”
Xquisite Ghost - “Firefall”
King Britt - “My Tribe Exudes Love” x Elizabeth LaPensée x Sun Ra
Legends & Lyrics - “Speak to Me of Justice”
Teeqwa - “Wooden Teeth”
NASA x Peter Morin “Time Traveller”
Moor Mother Goddess - “Parable”
Princess Nokia “Young Girls”
Impossible Nothing - “Destroy”
DJ Shub - “If You Want the Raw”
2oolman X TINC - “T.I.Kay”
Erykah Badu - “The Healer”
Joy KMT - “Origins”
King Britt - “Moonbathing”
Ryan Dennison - “Iina Baa Chanah Hasin”
Boogey the Beat - “Above Me” x Leanne Simpson “Airplanemode”
Darkstar - “Timeaway (Nguzunguzu Remix)”
Kelela - “Do It Again”
Silver Jackson - “From Another World (feat. Cat of THEESatisfaction)”
Shabazz Palaces - “Forerunner Foray”
Princess Nokia - “Biohazard Butterfly”
Shane Keepness - “Resurgence”
Notuv - “Ame” x Navajo Star Wars
Autechre - “Overand” x Jason Edward Lewis - “The Future Imaginary”
A Tribe Called Red - “PBC (Feat. Sheldon Sundon)”
Sun Ra - “Journey to Saturn”
KIMIWAN ZINE: INDIGENOUS FUTURISMS
Kimiwan's latest Issue 8, Indigenous Futurisms, launches on November 22nd. Guest edited by Elizabeth LaPensée, with cover art by Wendy Red Star, the issue features an interstellar list of contributors:
Amanda Strong
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Archer Pechawis
Barry Ace
Bear Witness
Bunky Echo-Hawk
Chris Morin
Dana Claxton
Elizabeth LaPensée
Fox Anthony Spears
Grace L. Dillon
Henry Heavy Shield
Jason Edward Lewis
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Leonard Getinthecar
Lindsey Catherine Cornum
Mary Longman
Métis in Space
peter morin
Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest
Renee Nejo
Skawennati
Steven Paul Judd
Wendy Red Star
Zines are available via subscription at kimiwan.bigcartel.com. Follow Kimiwan on Twitter and Tumblr and support independent, Indigenous media, music, and artists throughout the galaxy.
