On the politics of speculative fiction: A conversation with Drew Hayden Taylor

Abstract

The alternate realities and imagined futures of speculative fiction provide a rich source of material through which to interrogate our views of history, elucidate our contemporary cultural milieu and chart what we see as possible. This article attends to the politics of Indigenous–Settler relations through an engagement with speculative fiction. Spatially and temporally located in the country now called Canada in the twenty-first century, the work centres on a conversation between the author, a Settler Canadian, and writer, playwright and humourist, Drew Hayden Taylor, from the Curve Lake First Nation. A full transcript of the conversation, edited for length and clarity, is provided. In it, Taylor describes his speculative writing practice and engagement with Indigenous futures. The article concludes with the author’s reflection on the process of decolonization, situating engagement in Indigenous futurisms as a step in this process.