Reclaiming Time and Identity: The Wiradjuri Post-Apocalyptic Diaspora

C. L Hayden,
Nov 2024


For First Nations peoples across Australia, colonisation caused catastrophic disruptions that fractured lifeways, broke connections to Country and Culture, and imposed new social, legal, and cultural orders. Yet the resilience of First Nations communities in the face of these impacts reflects a powerful narrative of adaptation and survival. This collective experience of fragmentation, adaptation, and resilience defines what I term the Wiradjuri Post-Apocalyptic Diaspora, a testament to the enduring strength of Wiradjuri culture. Through reimagining time and identity, Indigenous art has become a potent tool for reclaiming histories erased or marginalised by colonisation.

Concepts like Native Slipstream, introduced by Grace Dillon, and Everywhen, found in many Aboriginal cultures, challenge the idea of time as linear and fixed—these Indigenous perspectives view time as cyclical, where the past, present, and future coexist. For an artist reimagining erased histories—particularly those involving Aboriginal queer identities—these ideas offer both a foundation and a path for reconstructing forgotten pasts and envisioning new futures. This perspective informs my work as I explore ways to reclaim, reimagine, and project Wiradjuri identity across time.

Native Slipstream and Everywhen: Reclaiming Aboriginal Queer Identities

The historical erasure of Aboriginal queer identities is rooted in colonial practices that sought to marginalise expressions of gender and sexuality outside heteronormative frameworks. Colonial history systematically erased the diversity of Aboriginal experiences, rendering queer Aboriginal men invisible in historical records and public narratives. This erasure has had lasting impacts on how Aboriginal queer identities are understood and represented.

In my practice, I use Native Slipstream and Everywhen to counter these colonial narratives. Native Slipstream, a concept from Indigenous Futurism, views time as non-linear and multidimensional. As Grace Dillon explains, in this perspective, the past, present, and future are interconnected, allowing alternate histories and speculative futures to coexist and influence each other. This approach enables me to reimagine queer Aboriginal men in historical timelines, such as the 1950s-1970s, where their presence was often erased.

Everywhen, a concept in many Aboriginal cultures, supports this relational understanding of time. Rather than being linear, time is seen as cyclical and interconnected, allowing ancestral stories, cultural knowledge, and present-day experiences to coexist. This understanding enables Aboriginal artists to reshape histories, making space for futures grounded in ancestral wisdom.

By drawing on these concepts, I reclaim space for the richness and complexity of Aboriginal queer identities, presenting them as integral parts of both Indigenous culture and the broader human experience across time.

Reclaiming Space in the Queer Canon

One of my projects examines the absence of queer Aboriginal men in Western queer cultural history, especially during the 1950s-1970s—a period of social change that largely excluded Aboriginal identities. Through Indigenous Queer Futurism, I reimagine queer Aboriginal men in these mid-century queer spaces, exploring how their presence reshapes these narratives.

Positioning queer Aboriginal men in these visual and cultural landscapes is not just about creating inclusive histories; it is an act of reclaiming space within a queer canon that has historically excluded us. By asserting queer Aboriginal identities within these narratives, the project highlights their importance and enriches the cultural legacy of queer history.

Three Imaginary Boys, 2023 Polaroid Triptych.

The 1967 Referendum: Reimagining Identity through Polaroid and AI

Another project revisits the 1967 referendum, a milestone in recognising Aboriginal rights in Australia. This referendum, which empowered the federal government to make laws for Aboriginal Australians, marked a turning point in political and cultural visibility. It was a significant step toward recognising Indigenous Australians as citizens and paved the way for further legislative changes.

In this project, I blend Polaroids and AI-generated imagery to explore queer Aboriginal identity in the context of this significant moment. By embedding AI-generated images onto Polaroid film, I create layered visuals that bridge past and future, capturing speculative histories in a tangible medium. This approach aligns with Everywhen, emphasising past, present, and future interconnectedness in Indigenous cultures. The Polaroid medium evokes the historical authenticity of the era, while AI projects queer Aboriginal identities into this timeline, envisioning their presence within a turning point in Australian history. This project brings themes of agency, resilience, and visibility into conversation with the broader story of Aboriginal history, imagining a continuity that transcends time and technology.

Using AI and Traditional Mediums to Envision Wiradjuri Futures

I incorporate AI with traditional art methods like digital printmaking and drawing to bring these speculative histories and reimagined spaces to life. This combination allows me to engage with Everywhen—the Wiradjuri understanding of time as an interconnected continuum. By using AI-generated images as a foundation, I create through printmaking and drawing to situate queer Aboriginal men across time, celebrating their presence as a constant across past, present, and future.

This approach engages with Nakata’s concept of cultural interface by combining Indigenous knowledge, contemporary tools, and traditional mediums. In this context, cultural interface represents the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and modern technology in creating art. AI is a foundation for visual exploration, allowing me to envision possible futures while honouring past identities. By integrating modern technology with traditional art forms, my work reflects the resilience and adaptability of Wiradjuri culture.

Guiding Principles: The Yindyamarra Winhanganha Framework

The Yindyamarra Winhanganha Framework, developed by Jonathan Jones and Dr. Uncle Stan Grant Sr., is foundational to my practice. This set of Wiradjuri cultural principles—focused on respectful communication, community care, and cultural self-knowledge—guides how I reimagine and retell queer Aboriginal histories, grounding my work in cultural integrity. These principles ensure that my practice honours the resilience of Wiradjuri people and the broader Aboriginal queer community.

Each project becomes an opportunity to claim cultural space and celebrate the richness of Wiradjuri identity as something that continues to evolve and extend into the future.

Contrasting Indigenous Views with Simulacra and Hyperreality

Western ideas, such as Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra, often express concern about representations losing touch with reality, creating a “hyperreal” world of images disconnected from anything real. By this logic, AI-generated images could be seen as simulacra—copies of something that never truly existed.

However, from an Indigenous perspective shaped by Native Slipstream and Everywhen, the figures created through this process are not detached from reality. Instead, they are part of a relational and cyclical way of being, existing within alternate histories or speculative futures equally accurate within Indigenous time frameworks. By embedding AI-generated images onto Polaroid film—a medium often linked with authenticity—I challenge the notion that these images are mere simulations. They gain a tangible presence, giving form to identities that, while omitted from colonial histories, are validated within Indigenous understandings of time and existence.

Art as a Bridge Across Time

The Wiradjuri Post-Apocalyptic Diaspora framework serves as a lens for understanding history and a means to reclaim, reimagine, and project Wiradjuri culture and identity into the future. Drawing on Indigenous temporal concepts like Native Slipstream and Everywhen and guided by the Yindyamarra Winhanganha Framework, my research and practice contribute to Wiradjuri cultural continuity and foster new dialogues within Indigenous studies, postcolonial theory, and art practice.

In this way, art becomes a bridge between worlds—between the past and the future, the imagined and the real. Through this creative process, alternate realities are not just imagined but made visible and tangible, challenging colonial erasure and offering new ways to understand time, identity, and existence. Guided by Wiradjuri values and my lived experience, I seek to honour the resilience, creativity, and strength of Wiradjuri Ancestors and Knowledge Holders, paving new pathways for cultural expression and future connection.



Clinton Hayden is a Wiradjuri Blak queer artist and writer based in Melbourne. His practice spans photography, AI image creation, print media, drawing, and bricolage, exploring the intersections of personal and collective histories. Clinton’s work is deeply informed by his commitment to preserving and promoting Wiradjuri language and engaging with Indigenous Queer Futurism.