Note: We recognize Anishinaabe author and professor Grace Dillon’s creation and use of the term Indigenous Futurism as a movement that intersects with technology and imagines a past where European colonization of Indigenous lands did not take place. In this current exhibit, we are expanding upon the idea of Indigenous perspectives and how we exist using ancient tools for our collective liberation.
This exhibit opens the space from an all-femme, indigenous lens from artists rooted in all four directions of California: to the East, the Inland Empire; to the South, San Diego; to the West, L.A and to the North, the Bay area.
Artists have always had the vision to collectively move us forward in society. The pandemic showed us how vital we are to the healing + enrichment of our people. The rich, inner worlds we create with our art become portals, beautiful places others can access through our visual storytelling.
indigenous futurism
Indigenous Futurism is about our long journey back home. Back home to the land, back home to the water, back home to the plants, back home to the ancestral plane, back home to ourselves as a people. It’s about reconnecting the sacred transmission of knowledge that was severed during colonization.
Our ancestral ways are ancient technologies for our collective liberation. These are our tribal stories, our cosmic memories and prophecies being made manifest. We are weaving new worlds for indigenous people. How we arrive at that destination is loosely woven like a thick braid of the past, the now + the future. It’s understanding they are all existing at the same time, across all space and time. Indigenous women/femmes/ 2-Spirit people will always be at the forefront of this energy, this forward movement.
ancient technologies for collective liberation
Our ancient, ancestral technologies will be the theme of Indigenous Futurism such as: returning to the plants as our original healers + our medicine, inner child exploration in the quantum field, womb healing, cultivating our native foodways, matrilineal family living, ancestral veneration, sacred sexuality + fluidity, honoring the lunar cycles, being in conversation with the cosmos, animals as sentient beings, curanderismo, centering the crone/elder, indigenous stewardship of the land, the reclamation of our birth spaces and rematriation. This is only the beginning of our journey back to self.
We are using our art + our visions to be in conversation with one another, to uplift the collective spirit + to raise the vibration of our communities. The intention of this exhibit is to tell the unique stories of our ancient technologies for our collective emotional, physical + spiritual liberation as people.
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Curator + artist, Denise Silva
on view at The Cheech
Indigenous Futurism is on view through February 18, 2024 in the Altura Credit Union Community Gallery at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art + Culture and it features paintings, works on paper, sculpture + video viewed through an indigenous lens by 18 all-femme artists. Curated by Riverside-based artist Denise Silva, participating artists are: Abby Aceves | Ariana Arroyo | Adriana Carranza | Melanie Cervantes | Amparo Chi | Rosy Cortez | Emilia Cruz | Stephanie Godoy | Mariana Gómez | Mariah Green | Jeshua | Belen Ledezma | Andrea Ramirez | Lilia Ramirez | Denise Silva | Maritza Torres | Sarah Vazquez | Mer Young
Several of our Indigenous Futurism artists as well as local community artists have contributed to building a folder with coloring pages that stand in solidarity with our relatives in Palestine as a resource to our communities that was available during our artist reception at the Cheech. Please be respectful of the artists and do not use these images for any other purpose.
The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum 3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA, 92501
