Cleverman and Indigenous Futurism

If there is a new Australian sci-fi TV series that everyone must watch, its Cleverman. The first episode, “First Contact,” is filled with an undercurrent of dislocation, anger, and loss. Through the vehicle of social science fiction, the series tackles things that make for sometimes uncomfortable viewing, simply because these are relevant issues that come from a real place of pain and subjugation.

But far from the silver streaming screen, the reality of many black people is dire. For the Aboriginal people in Australia, I can’t help feel that their struggle is beset with even more challenges: alienation, misunderstood mentality, double identities. These are a people that have endured a systematic genocide during colonial invasion that's on the scale of the Rape of Nangking in WWII. With this in mind, it adds significant emotional weight when you watch Cleverman.

For the full feature, including how Yidinji sovereign nation leader, Murrumu Walubara, is changing the notion of  'tribal' identify and 'modern statehood', visit LLF: 'Cleverman', indigenous futurism and the Empowerment of a Lost Culture