A “Galaxy of Islands”: Navigating Space Colonization Through the Pasifikafuturist Perspectives of Gina Cole’s Na Viro and Claire Coleman’s Terra Nullius

Abstract

"This thesis will examine modern space exploration and its critical connections to Indigenous SF literatures, and how these connections can in turn help us re-examine the positionality of outer space within climate change discourse. I will specifically center my explorations around the literary analysis of Indigenous Oceanian SF literatures—otherwise known as Pasifikafuturism— and how this subsection of Indigenous SF literature can help shape our perspectives towards a more pluralistic and interconnected view of our natural environment and climate change at large. I will approach my research vis-a-vis case studies of two Oceanian SF/Pasifikafuturist novels: Na Viro by Gina Cole and Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman. While Na Viro and Terra Nullius respectively represent either more ocean-based or land-based Oceanian perspectives, I argue that both Pasifikafuturist novels respond to space colonization by foregrounding Indigenous Oceanian environmental holism, and emphasizing the importance of viewing outer space as equally part of our Earth-bound natural environments. Firstly, I will explore how wayfinding, as a symbol of ecological holism within Oceanian epistemologies, is transposed and transfused with the imagery of outer space, and its associated interstellar technology throughout Na Viro. Secondly, I will examine how Terra Nullius, in alluding to real-life Australian settler-colonial histories through SF colonial imaginings, emphasizes the cyclical nature of human colonial sentiments— regardless of if it is within the realms of Earth, or whether it reaches beyond the stars."