Future memory work: unsettling temporal Othering through speculative research practices

Abstract

This article introduces ‘future memory work’ as a conceptual framework and speculative practice to unsettle the temporal hierarchies that are intrinsically tied to the anthropological project and that lead to Othering through time. By adding a future dimension to memory work – a concept and methodological tool to better understand how we make sense of the world around us – it becomes possible not only to acknowledge but proactively make use of how the future shapes the way we (re)construct the past in the now. The article foregrounds a study wherein young Indigenous people from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) were invited to create ‘future memories’ for subsequent generations by producing ‘memory texts’ that best represent what they consider worth preserving. In my research, I utilize the future to elevate the present in conjunction with the past and illustrate how this future-orientation offers an alternative temporal frame to investigate young Kalaallit’s (Greenlandic Inuit) multitemporal relations to the world.