Téo Montoya part two: the role of indigenous futurism in world building

The Ground Shots Podcast

Episode #55 is a conversation with Téo Montoya of the Indigenous Futures Podcast.

Téo was our guest on episode #48 of the podcast. Episode #48 was a series of recordings from his joining Gabe Crawford and I on the Colorado Trail last summer for a couple days during our Plant-a-go walk.

After that episode went out, Téo and I chatted about doing another episode together where we get deeper into some of the topics we touched on while talking candidly on the trail.

Téo Montoya is a Lipan Apache(Ndé) Writer, Indigenous futurist, Electronic Music Producer, Human Design Analyst, Traditional Ecological Knowledge Student, and Educator. After completing his BA in Food and Medical Anthropology, with a focus on Indigenous diets and health disparities in Native American communities, Teo spent 5 years exploring the worlds of plant medicine, Ancestral Health Coaching, Djing and Producing music, Information Technology, working with a Native-Led Non-profits, and completing his Human Design Training. As a writer and creator he has begun the long process of writing a speculative fiction series and media project imagining future worlds and societies built upon indigenous values, ideals, and cultures. Teo believes imaging the future, specifically a future grounded in indigenous knowledge and technology, will provide us with the solutions to meet the largest challenges to the Earth and our Humanity. Today, Teo lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, writing, producing music, and supporting people on their personal and spiritual health journeys.

In this conversation with Téo, we talk about:

• Téo defines indigenous futurism more in-depth (you can also learn a lot on his new podcast, The Indigenous Futures Podcast, here)

• the role of indigenous futurism in envisioning a new relationship with land moving forward

• we get deeper into the concept of transcommunality, what it means, who writes about it, and how we can take cue from the ideas for community building

• intersections of religion and spirituality in how we see the land and treat one another

• religion and power

• the importance of having a relationship to land

• some talk on #landback and land reparations and how that connects to spirit

• technology, techné and religious awe and some philosophy of technology in relationship to Indigenous Futurism

• the importance of myth in creating cosmologies of reciprocity

• some words on Téo’s current art + story multimedia projects

• some indigenous-afro futures writers and artists of note

Links:

Téo on Instagram: @humandesignreadings

@indigenousfuturespodcast

@teo.montoya.nde

The Indigenous Futures Podcast

Octavia Butler’s work

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Theme music: 'Sweat and Splinters' by Mother Marrow

Interstitial Music: by Téo Montoya

Hosted by: Kelly Moody

Produced by: Kelly Moody and Téo Montoya