Framings in Indigenous futures thinking: barriers, opportunities, and innovations
Cheok, Jessica, van Velden, Julia, Fulton, Elizabeth A., Gordon, Iain J., Lyons, Ilisapeci, Peterson, Garry D., Wren, Liz, and Hill, Rosemary (2025) Framings in Indigenous futures thinking: barriers, opportunities, and innovations. Sustainability Science, 20 (2). 100728. pp. 613-633.
|
PDF (Published Version)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Human societies face existential challenges on multiple fronts: climate change, biodiversity loss, altered biogeochemical flows, social unrest and injustices. Innovative solutions are needed to shift current trajectories towards a sustainable and just future. Futures thinking enables people to explore and articulate alternative futures and find pathways towards their desired futures. Indigenous people have the potential to make significant contributions to futures thinking because of their distinctive perspectives: the viewpoint of already living in a post-apocalyptic world in the context of colonisation, unique knowledges, worldviews, and perspectives on time, as well as significant contributions to safeguarding biological and cultural diversity. A body of literature is emerging where Indigenous peoples contribute to and lead futures thinking approaches; however, this literature is diffuse and highly diverse in its approaches and terminology. Thus, we take an innovation-seeking and systematic approach to (1) identify patterns and processes in futures thinking with, for, and by Indigenous people; (2) highlight innovative approaches; (3) bring together diverse and sector-specific terminology; and (4) foreground emerging strengths and weaknesses. We identified four framings of Indigenous futures thinking: Adaptation oriented, Participatory, Culturally grounded, and Indigenising. Factors contributing to innovation include strong involvement of Indigenous people in the research team, co-design, and authorship, using Indigenous methodologies, cultural protocols, and explicitly employing decolonisation and trauma-informed approaches. We spotlight the challenges of conducting an exhaustive literature review in an emerging field with inconsistent terminology (e.g., capturing regions where Indigeneity is contested). We also create a living glossary of terms to aid other researchers and communities in using and refining the suite of methods identified here, with the aim of stimulating further innovations in this field.
| Item ID: | 88277 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1862-4057 |
| Keywords: | Futures, Indigenising, Innovation, Methodologies, Scenarios, Stories |
| Copyright Information: | © Crown 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Apr 2026 04:28 |
| FoR Codes: | 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community > 450525 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sociology @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 21 INDIGENOUS > 2101 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community services > 210102 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander development and wellbeing @ 100% |
| More Statistics |
Actions (Repository Staff Only)
 |
Item Control Page |