We’re Not Imagining Wakanda. We’re Building It.
Wakanda inspired the world in Black Panther. For us, it’s not fiction. It’s a call to build. And every Indigenous Nation gets to answer it their own way.
If you saw Black Panther, you remember Wakanda. A sovereign African nation. Never colonized. Advanced in tech. Deep in tradition. Fierce in diplomacy. Fully in control of its destiny.
To me, it wasn't just a backdrop. It was the blueprint.
For most people, it was fiction. For us, it felt familiar. Like a future we hadn't seen yet but always knew was possible.
Beyond Metaphor
That's what I mean when I say I want to build Wakanda. Not a metaphor. Not a vibe. But a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. The BHAG we need.
The first time I said "We're building Wakanda" in a side event of UNPFII, delegates exchanged confused glances. A pop culture reference? But the Indigenous youth delegates knew I wasn't speaking metaphorically. Their eyes started sparkling like Christmas in April. Because, after 20 years navigating international governance, I've learned that sometimes fiction provides the blueprint reality lacks.
What Makes Wakanda Work
Wakanda works because it inspired us to solve problems others couldn't. Protected resources others squandered. Developed technologies others hadn't imagined. Maintained culture while embracing innovation.
The difference? Aside from Wakanda being fiction.
Wakanda already won. We're still fighting.
But here's what I've learned: You can't build what you can't imagine. And for too long, our imaginations have been colonized. We imagine ourselves as protesters, not builders. As preservers, not innovators. As problems to be managed, not solutions to be implemented.
Once Were Gardeners
This need to reclaim our imagination echoes powerfully in the work of uncle Moana Jackson, the late Māori legal scholar. In his pivotal lecture "Once Were Gardeners" he challenged the colonial stereotype of Māori as a "warrior race". A myth perpetuated to justify State control and ongoing marginalization.
Instead, he argued that Māori were historically gardeners, lovers, poets, and innovators. Gardening wasn't just sustenance. It was social, spiritual, and cultural vitality. It was tino rangatiratanga. Self-determination.
Absolutely loved it.
"The myth of the violent, brutish, immature, dependent warrior race is one such tool," Jackson wrote, "Used to hold up the structure of colonisation. It does this by legitimising the need for a parent State to oversee us, correct us, and dominate us".
This resonates deeply with me because Maluku faces the same narrative. We're told we're warriors. We are. Alifuru were headhunters in the literal sense of the word. But there are also Alifuru gardeners, fishermen, carpenters, poets. Not every Alifuru needs to be a warrior. We need all hands on deck if we want to create a Wakanda. And last time I checked, you can't build a Wakanda with 300 Spartan warriors.
Uncle Moana’s call was clear: Decolonize our minds. Let go of colonial structures that perpetuate institutional racism. Rebuild from an Indigenous perspective. I can’t remember who said it but I recall "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"
Real change comes only when Indigenous Peoples design or reinvigorate their own systems. Much as Wakanda did in fiction.
The Mindset Shift
Wakanda changes that. It shows us what Indigenous Peoples’ Nations look like fully realized. Not asking permission. Not explaining ourselves. Not adapting to systems designed to exclude us. Instead, creating systems so advanced, so necessary, that the world reshapes itself around our gravity.
During the climate negotiations at COP, I watched Indigenous delegates navigate complex diplomatic protocols with skill that surprised State representatives. We weren't supposed to be that sophisticated. We weren't supposed to understand their games better than they did. We weren't supposed to create solutions they hadn't imagined.
But we did. Because we've always been innovators. We've always been diplomats. We've always been system designers. Colonialism just made us forget.
The Real Work
Wakanda reminds us who we are. It's not nostalgia for pre-colonial times. It's a blueprint for post-colonial futures. It's what happens when we stop playing defense and start playing offense.
When every process or project asks, "Does this move us toward Wakanda?" the frame shifts entirely. Meetings become building blocks. Wins fit larger strategies. Youth see themselves as future architects, not future problems.
The work of gardening, of tending to land, culture, and community, is both protest and vision. I really believe that it reminds us that before colonization, Indigenous Peoples were builders, cultivators, and innovators.That’s the path forward I like to pave with my Gomaluku platform, to remember, reclaim, and reimagine until the world reshapes itself around Indigenous solutions.
That's the blueprint. Not the vibranium or the panthers. The principle. Indigenous futures so advanced, so necessary, that we’re no longer seen as charity.
So yeah, for me, Wakanda is not just a dream. It is a blueprint. Like any blueprint, it needs work and the work begins when we start believing we can build it.
To end with the famous words of Barack Obama: Yes. We. Can!
That’s it for today!
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