Opening ceremony

Indigenous peoples and ancestral wisdoms from across Turtle Island, Latin America and Oceania were instrumental in making this journal possible. In celebration of all the ancestors and elders past, present and emerging who offered guidance to the editors and contributors of this journal, we begin with a Chamoru chant by saina (elder) Jeremy N.C. Cepeda, entitled “In Neni Hamyo.”

17. Planning Just Indigenous Futures

From forecasting and projections to backcasting and visioning, urban planners have at their disposal an impressive array of tools to understand and analyze the future. While these tools offer instructive insights, they were not developed to serve Indigenous peoples. Indeed, they do not offer culturally competent modes of Indigenous community engagement, or honor the sovereignty of Indigenous nations, nor do they sufficiently attend to the constitutive role of Indigenous values, epistemologies or kinships in the formulation and enactment of more just Indigenous futures. 

This reflects a systematic disconnect between the formal tools of futures planning, and the more capacious tools of Indigenous-led, futures-oriented planning initiatives. To bridge this disconnect, it is critical for planning scholarship to more meaningfully engage the interdisciplinary, Indigenous-led field of Indigenous Studies, and for planning practice to more meaningfully align itself with the diverse Indigenous-led planning initiatives that so constitute contemporary movements for Indigenous resurgence, sovereignty and life. 

Projections Volume 17 starts from the premise that urban planners interested in serving Indigenous peoples must engage with Indigenous scholars, elders, community leaders and artists to understand the unique discursive terrain and material conditions within which Indigenous peoples are already formulating and enacting visions for a more just world. Bringing together artwork from six Indigenous artists, reflections from four Indigenous community leaders, and three article-length manuscripts from planning scholars working in Turtle Island, Oceania and Latin America, this volume seeks to highlight the value of relational dialogue across scholarship, practice and art, in service of realizing more just Indigenous futures. 

It is a sacred thing to be able to forge Indigenous kinships across islands, atolls, continents, deserts, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Once again, to express our immense gratitude for the Indigenous ancestral knowledges and kinships that are woven into the contents of this journal, we conclude by way of another Chamoru chant by saina Jeremy N.C. Cepeda, entitled “Manetnon Hit.”