Making Indigenous Futures Real: Concrete Steps for Systemic Transformation
Part 2: From Vision to Practice
How to transform systems, heal historical trauma, and build the infrastructure for an Indigenous future.
"Armed with spirit and the teachings of our ancestors, all our relations behind us, we are living the Indigenous future." -Molly Swain (Métis). These words are a call to action.
In Part 1, we explored why Indigenous futures offer humanity its best hope for survival and flourishing. Now comes the harder work: how do we actually make this vision real?
I first want to share with you that I write this from experience, not theory. Through our work at Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice, and our regenerative farm, and our cultural consulting practice, my wife Edith and I have been attempting to build pieces of this future for years. We’ve tried. We’ve failed. We’ve also had some success. We've seen what works, what doesn't, and what it takes to transform entrenched systems. We don’t have all the answers, but we have some.
The path forward isn't simple, but it is possible. It requires addressing historical trauma, transforming education, experimenting with new economics, and building governance systems that center relationship over power. Most importantly, it requires non-Indigenous people to step up as genuine allies in this work.
Technology as Relationship
Indigenous people critique the exclusion of Indigenous people from the contemporary world and challenge notions of what constitutes advanced technology. Indigenous knowledge represents humanity's longest-running R&D project—technologies that sustained complex civilizations for thousands of years.
When we work with corporations through our Sho-Kee Cultural Consultants business, we sometimes encounter the romantic assumption that Indigenous knowledge is somehow "primitive" or "pre-modern." This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what technology actually is. The ability to create sustainable abundance from the land, to govern complex societies through consensus, to maintain ecological balance while supporting large populations—these are sophisticated technologies that Western civilization has forgotten and has yet to master again.
Future technology could integrate traditional ecological knowledge with climate science to develop ecosystem restoration strategies that actually work. The climate models that predict catastrophic warming ignore Indigenous land management practices that have been sequestering carbon for millennia. When we integrate Indigenous fire management with contemporary climate science, we get forest management strategies that prevent catastrophic wildfires while maintaining ecosystem health.
There is a reason I call this age the Europatricene and not the Anthropocene as most have dubbed it. Let’s not place blame on the whole of humanity for this problem. I put the blame squarely on the Age of Industrialization, which was created by European elite, capitalists’ men. The world’s Indigenous people did not cause the problems, but they do hold the solutions.
Indigenous governance systems combined with digital platforms could enable large-scale consensus building. The internet makes it possible to apply traditional council processes to larger populations than ever before. Instead of the polarized, winner-take-all politics that characterize Western democracies, we could build decision-making systems that ensure every voice is heard and every decision considers long-term consequences.
Ceremonial practices integrated with mental health approaches could heal individual and collective trauma. Indigenous communities have always understood that healing happens in relationship—with community, with land, with spirit. Mental health approaches that isolate individuals from these relationships miss the deeper sources of healing.
Kinship principles combined with economic algorithms could prioritize relationships over profit maximization. What if economic systems were designed to strengthen relationships rather than extract maximum value? Indigenous economies have always been gift economies that create abundance through reciprocity rather than scarcity through competition.
Healing Historical Trauma and Concrete Steps Toward Indigenous Futures
The problem is obvious. The vision is clear. But how do we build the infrastructure to make it real? Here are concrete steps that individuals, communities, and institutions can take:
Indigenous Futurism offers pathways to heal the historical trauma that shapes contemporary crises. But healing requires more than acknowledgment—it requires transformation.
Truth-telling means honest accounting of colonial violence and its ongoing impacts. This isn't just about what happened in the past; it's about understanding how colonial systems continue to shape everything from land use patterns to educational curricula to economic structures. The boarding school system that attempted to "kill the Indian, save the man" ended in the 1970s, but its impacts continue to reverberate through Indigenous communities today. I recommend a national traveling year of truth where Indigenous peoples cross the nation in state organized events that are nationally televised, sharing their experiences.
Land Back isn't just about returning Indigenous lands—it's about ecological restoration and climate adaptation. Indigenous communities protect 80% of the world's biodiversity on just 22% of the world's land. Returning Indigenous lands to Indigenous management is one of the most effective climate strategies available.
Reparations cannot be just monetary payments; they must involve systemic transformation that addresses root causes of injustice. When Germany paid reparations to Holocaust survivors, it also completely transformed its political system to prevent future genocides. Similarly, reparations for Indigenous peoples must involve transforming the systems that enabled and continue to enable Indigenous oppression. I recommend land back, access to sacred sites, a moratorium on all extractive industries, especially those near traditional Native lands, and the return of all unused federal land and buildings to regional tribal councils.
Cultural revitalization means supporting Indigenous language recovery, ceremonial practice, and traditional knowledge transmission. But it also means creating space for Indigenous cultures to evolve and adapt to contemporary challenges. Indigenous futurism isn't about preserving cultures in museums; it's about ensuring Indigenous cultures continue to thrive and contribute to human knowledge.
Psychological-spiritual Healing addresses need for healing in Indigenous communities is immense for those suffering from PTSD and Post Colonial Stress Syndrome, which is pervasive. By university systems offering scholarships and training, along with government re-establishment of a better health system, allowing traditional healers, sobriety programs and treatment centers to treat patients, the healing process can make a difference.
Educational Transformation: Curricula that center Indigenous knowledge alongside Western science, teaching students to think in relationships rather than isolated disciplines. This means more than adding a unit on Indigenous history to existing curricula. It means fundamentally restructuring how we teach students to understand their place in the web of life.
I've seen this in action through our work with our schools. When people learn about watershed ecology from Indigenous knowledge keepers, they don't just learn facts about water systems—they learn to see themselves as part of the watershed. When they learn about agriculture from Indigenous farmers, they don't just learn techniques—they learn to see farming as relationship with the land.
Economic Experiments: Supporting Indigenous-led enterprises, cooperatives, and gift economies as models for post-capitalist organization. This isn't simply about charity; it's about learning from economic systems that have sustained communities for millennia.
Through our Eloheh Seeds project, we practice gift economy principles. We often give seeds away freely, knowing that the gifts will return in abundance. We've seen this principal work. In abundance comes sharing, not hoarding.
Governance Innovation: Pilot programs that test consensus-based decision making, participatory budgeting, and council governance at local levels. The city of Seattle has experimented with participatory budgeting, allowing communities to directly decide how public money is spent. These experiments show that people are capable of making good decisions about their communities when given the tools and opportunity.
Land Restoration: Partnering with Indigenous communities to restore damaged ecosystems using traditional knowledge and contemporary tools. The state of California has begun incorporating Indigenous fire management practices into some of its wildfire prevention strategies. These partnerships recognize that Indigenous communities have been managing these landscapes for thousands of years.
Urban Planning: Designing cities that function as ecosystems, with Indigenous principles guiding development patterns. The city of Vancouver, B.C. Canada, has committed to becoming the world's greenest city by incorporating Indigenous principles of relationship with land into its urban planning.
Building Alliances for Transformation
Indigenous futurism cannot be built by Indigenous peoples alone. It requires non-Indigenous people to step up as genuine allies in this work. This means more than attending cultural events or posting land acknowledgments on social media. It means working to transform the systems that continue to oppress Indigenous peoples.
For individuals: Learn about the Indigenous history of your area. Support Indigenous-led organizations. Practice reciprocity in your relationships with land and community. Change your consumption patterns to align with Indigenous values.
For organizations: Hire Indigenous people in leadership positions. Source supplies from Indigenous-owned businesses. Incorporate Indigenous values into organizational culture. Use organizational resources to support Indigenous-led initiatives.
For institutions: Divest from extractive industries. Invest in regenerative alternatives. Transform curricula to center Indigenous knowledge. Create pathways for Indigenous people.
For governments: Return Indigenous lands. Support Indigenous sovereignty. Incorporate Indigenous governance principles into policymaking. Fund Indigenous-led climate solutions.
The Urgency of Now
We are at a critical moment to make a down payment on a regenerative economy, while laying the groundwork for preventing future crises. The window for preventing catastrophic climate change is rapidly closing. The systems that have created this crisis—extractive capitalism, colonial governance, industrial agriculture—are not capable of solving it.
Indigenous futurism offers proven alternatives that have sustained complex civilizations for millennia. The technologies exist. The knowledge systems exist. The only question is whether humanity has the wisdom to learn from the peoples who've been practicing these alternatives all along, and the courage to transform systems that are killing our shared future.
This isn't just about survival—it's about creating a world where all life can flourish. Indigenous futurism envisions futures where technology serves life rather than dominating it, where governance centers relationship rather than power, where economics creates abundance through sharing rather than scarcity through competition.
The future belongs to those who remember how to live in relationship with each other and the earth that sustains us all. Indigenous peoples have been keeping this knowledge alive through over 500 years of attempted genocide. Now it's time for the rest of humanity to learn.
The Indigenous future is not just Indigenous peoples' best hope—it's humanity's only hope. And it's not coming someday. It's here now, waiting for us to choose it.
Randy Woodley is co-author of Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Bring Harmony & Wellbeing and Co-Sustainer of Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice. He writes from Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Eloheh Farm in Oregon, where he and his wife Edith practice regenerative agriculture and traditional seed keeping.
Keep up the good work Randy. Regenerative rather than extractive practices are the only answer to building a society that preserves and enhances the earth providing a better life for all.
I revel in your hope and wisdom. Thank you for articulating the true wealth of this world and humanity. I wonder how many people NEVER stop to consider their relationships.....to everything.