Indigenous Cinema and the Apocalypse

The Hollywood Apocalypse Film and its tropes ultimately represent a genre interested in translating the horrors of colonial violence (mass murder, destruction and theft of land, forced internment) to an audience which both likely has not experienced said violence and potentially is not even aware of how it has directly benefitted their lives. This essay, however, examines the Indigenous Apocalypse Film, a rapidly developing countermovement to this genre, where members of indigenous and colonized communities create their own apocalyptic narratives reflective of their collective experience and history. The essay examines two prominent themes found in many of these films: the Apocalypse as allegory for indigenous trauma, and the reclamation of indigeneity as a tool of liberation.