ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comparative analysis between two science fiction novellas written by two Indigenous authors who hail from different oceanic environments. This analysis is framed within a theoretical focus on “Pasifikafuturism”, which locates Indigenous Pacific people’s creative production within the Pacific Ocean environment. Pasifikafuturism is anchored in the wayfinding navigational knowledge our ancestors employed when voyaging across the Pacific Ocean using environmental signs to find land. Māori writer Witi Ihimaera’s novella Dead of Night and “Naijamerican” Nnedi Okorafor’s novella Binti find connection in the placement of Indigenous characters in space and the use of oceanic metaphorical devices in storytelling.
