The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 162 NINGWASUM (stills) 2020–21 Single-channel video: 16:9, colour, sound, 40 minutes (approx.) / Purchased 2021. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Early in my career I mostly painted while developing some videos, installations and performative works. Late in 2015, however, I began experimenting with sound and music, as well as creating performances around them. I used to record sounds of protest even before experimenting with sound art, so I started using those recordings for my projects. I then discovered the writing of science-fiction author Octavia E Butler and began making recordings through reading passages of her work. I began incorporating science fiction through an indigenous lens for my artworks — mainly digital art and sound works — using my indigenous language and script, songs and symbols. I even designed a mothership (featured in NINGWASUM ) based on Silamsakma , a ritualistic object commonly used, and also unanimously accepted, as a symbol of identity among our indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) nationalities in Nepal. Without knowing, I was touching upon another movement of creative practice known as Indigenous Futurism, and as I came to discover this, I was further inspired. Paying homage to Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism, I call my practice — incorporating indigeneity, science, speculative fiction, fantasy and science fiction elements — ‘Adivasi Futurism’, not to distinguish it as a separate entity, but one that is nurtured and facilitated through Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism. Adivasi is a Nepalese word for ‘indigenous’ but the term is also widely used as a collective term for indigenous people in the Indian subcontinent. So, for me, Adivasi Futurism could be a space where Adivasi artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers can imagine and speculate future scenarios from their perspective where they have agency, technology and sovereignty, and where their indigenous knowledge, culture, ethics and storytelling remain intact. It could be an intersection, where futures can be imagined, and where Brahminical patriarchal casteism and racism — which has been detrimental to Adivasis, Dalits, women and queer people in the region — no longer exists, or where these futures become a vehicle to construct ways to disrupt and dismantle them. This latest work, NINGWASUM 2020–21, explores Adivasi Futurism and has developed over a number of years as I have been creating and collecting stories, and researching my indigenous folktales and cultures. It imagines an indigenous astronaut and time traveller from the future, where her indigenous Nation not only coexists with other nations and allies in the future, but has also created its own advanced technology. The two time travellers are played by Subin Limbu and Shanta Nepali (who is also director of photography). Filmed mostly in the Himalayas — including the Wasanglung region believed to be the shamanic home of my Yakthung people — it weaves together storytelling, animation, indigenous language, soundscapes and electronic music. NINGWASUM explores the notion of time, space and memory, and how future realities could be different for different communities. Even as you read these lines, your lived experience, your ideas about the space you are in, and your memories will determine your perception of this piece — and could be totally different from the person reading it next to you. In the context of the glacial mountain-scapes of the Himalayan region and the precarious state of indigenous culture and sovereignty of my people, similarly this docu-fiction entails environmental issues and ideas around conservation and development. Amidst the current nation-states’ capitalist neoliberal worldview, where indigenous people are seen as an obstacle to progress, we are making our voices heard. We are challenging the Western idea of ‘development’. In times like these, spaces like Adivasi Futurism could be a portal to re-view and re-define progress, de-link the idea of nation-states and — contrary to colonialist narratives of indigenous people as ‘primitive’ — it could be a space to re-imagine ourselves as not only the storytellers of the past but also as creators of interplanetary and interstellar civilisations of the future. Subash Thebe Limbu Butler’s work was different from other science fiction writers I was familiar with — and from any mainstream space-wars saga with laser-toting spaceships. A futuristic world as told by a black writer was very refreshing and a great window to see and imagine future scenarios and redefine my own practice. Storytelling, indigeneity, my love of science and science fiction — it all needed to somehow come into a place and space. As an indigenous artist and activist committed to sociopolitical issues, I always wanted to work on indigeneity but was not sure on ways to approach it. Octavia’s storytelling inspired me to speculate around my own indigeneity in the context of future timelines. Subash Thebe Limbu Yakthung people Born 1981, Dharan, Nepal Lives and works in London, United Kingdom and Kathmandu, Nepal