Forging is a digital-first journal for critically imagining Native futures. Its editors and contributors are deeply committed to changing the way we study and interpret Indigenous survivance in the face of settler colonialism, with a focus on engaging, highlighting, and learning from Native voices. Find our current open calls and read our pitch guidelines here.

Collecting, Feature

The Seed-Saving Movement Is Bigger Than Banks

Mary Ladd

Mar 14, 2025

Seed banks housed in universities, governments, and even global institutions such as Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault serve as biodiversity archives, but their structure reflects a colonial approach to preservation and perhaps inadequate solutions to a problem that requires active cultivation, rather than passive storage. For Indigenous communities, the ability to save and exchange seeds is an assertion of sovereignty, a powerful act of reclamation and resilience—a resurgence of Indigenous wisdom that industrial and colonial agricultural systems have suppressed.

Governance, Conversation

The Politics of Naming Within Kayanręhstì·yu·

Mia McKie

Dec 18, 2024

A researcher and citizen of the Tuscarora Nation explains how the politics of language is an expression of traditional Haudenosaunee governing values.

Governance, Essay

Reclaiming Birth Sovereignty

Maymangwa Flying Earth & Nīa MacKnight

Nov 14, 2024

The United States is experiencing a maternal mortality crisis at staggering rates, especially for Indigenous people. A collaboration between reproductive justice advocate Maymangwa Flying Earth and photographer Nīa MacKnight, the following essay highlights different strategies, including birthing centers and individual practices that provide community-care models in which midwives honor the ceremony of birth through compassion, patience, and holistic care.

Archive

Collecting, FeatureThe Seed-Saving Movement Is Bigger Than BanksMar 14, 2025Governance, ConversationThe Politics of Naming Within Kayanręhstì·yu·Dec 18, 2024Governance, EssayReclaiming Birth SovereigntyNov 14, 2024Governance, Q&A‘Our way of life doesn't mean anything to them’: A Q&A on cultural resistance in Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’ NationOct 23, 2024Correction*, Essayevery pattern needs a passageMay 30, 2024Connectivity, Essay‘We Connect Whole Families’May 6, 2024Connectivity, Art HistoryGagizhibaajiwan, or Living With ParadoxApr 30, 2024Connectivity, AnalysisMaintaining Diné K'é OnlineApr 23, 2024Connectivity, EssayReimagining Native MotherhoodApr 15, 2024Connectivity, Design CriticismThe Impermanent Beauty of Cree DesignApr 5, 2024Language, ConversationSpeaking With Your Cat: An Artist and Researcher Talk Artificial Intelligence, Community, and Cultural ExpressionJan 26, 2024Language, Analysispiyêsiwak wâhkôhtowin/thunderbird’s kinshipJan 18, 2024Language, HistoryRadical Indigenous Contemporaneity in ʻKe Aloha O Ka Haku’Jan 8, 2024Language, Art History(Un)seen: Rotuman Fạ’iDec 27, 2023Language, EssayAsking for Permission/Listening for ConsentDec 18, 2023Knowing, EssayPostmodernism Is Not PermissionOct 18, 2023Knowing, Q&A‘Clay. . . Lets You Leave Your Mark Exactly How You Put It Down’: An Interview With Raven HalfmoonSep 30, 2023Knowing, FeatureFinding HomeSep 28, 2023Seed, Feature‘A Love Song to Ohlone Culture’Jun 23, 2023Seed, How-toHow to Make a Goathead SoftJun 23, 2023Seed, Q&AQ&A With Lucy GrignonJun 23, 2023Seed, Nonfiction essayPlanting Tobacco While the Ancestors LaughJun 23, 2023Seed, Photo essaySeeds, Bodies & Territory in Cerro QuilishJun 23, 2023

Get the Latest News