Volume VI Special Issue VI September 2026

Name of Author : Aswathy K M, Dr. Alex E R

Title of the paper : Dream Catchers in the Anthropocene: Indigenous Futurism and Survivance in The Marrow Thieves and Hunting by Stars

Abstract: In this paper, I consider Cherie Dimalines The Marrow Thieves 2017 and its sequel, Hunting by Stars 2021, through the lens of Indigenous Futurism, conceptualised by Grace L. Dillon, and Gerald Vizenors Theory of survivance. In a speculative future decimated by climate change, where non Indigenous populations have lost the ability to dream, Dimaline depicts the dystopian commodification and harvesting of Indigenous bone marrow, which is the biological and spiritual vessel of dreams, story, and memory. Against the broader backdrop of the Anthropocene, this paper illustrates how Dimaline reconfigures the apocalypse not as an impending speculative catastrophe but as an ongoing historical reality initiated by settler colonialism. This paper examines Indigenous dream knowledge as a site of anti colonial resistance, relational ethics, and sustainable future making through the theory of Survivance in conjunction with Ojibwe and Métis epistemologies. This article, through the analysis of narrative structures, character trajectories, and theoretical frameworks of both texts under different analytical titles, demonstrates how Dimaline employs Indigenous Futurism to dismantle linear timelines, re appropriate ancestral sovereignty, and establish Indigenous presence in the speculative imaginary.

Keywords : Indigenous Futurism, Native Survivance, Decolonial Anthropocene, Speculative Fiction, Dystopia

DOI :

Page Number : 314-321