Against Extinction: Space Nomads and Ancestral Futures in Ximan Poteh: contos dos futuros puri (2021)

Indigenous futurisms is a growing genre throughout Abiayala, from short fiction, novels, and film to visual art, music, and comics. This essay focuses on a 44-page collection of short stories by Puri author André da Silva Muniz. Ximan Poteh: contos dos futuros puri (2021) imagines a future universe where First Nations like the Puri engage in space exploration, planetary worldbuilding, and interstellar diplomacy based on traditional communal practices. Placing Muniz’s approach in dialogue with the broader context of ancestral futures in Brazil and Indigenous futurisms throughout the hemisphere, I consider how he subverts the myth of the vanishing Indian by projecting his people into the distant future as a radical affirmation of presence.