Digital Storytelling to Protect the Planet: Black and Indigenous Youth Activism as Rising Resistance

The current narrativization of the youth-led climate justice movement perpetuates the racist and colonial roots of mainstream environmentalism in the settler state of the United States of America. This stale story is challenged by the rising resistance of Black and Indigenous youth activists seeking to protect the planet through new and creative means of expression and self-representation. They are bringing a new rhythm to the environmental movement that disturbs the dominant narrative of whiteness and exceptionalism, unearthing excluded and erased histories of contributions to planetary protection from their own communities. The digital storytelling of Black and Indigenous youth strikes at the heart of colonial-capitalist logics and calls attention to the entanglements of environmentalism and white supremacy. Situating these contemporary youth efforts in longer legacies of influence and involvement from Black and Indigenous communities for planetary protection allows for a more expansive view on their environmental contributions, one which highlights Black and Indigenous youth as indispensable leaders in the youth climate justice movement. In forging creative coalitions that are rooted in sonic solidarity, current efforts towards climate justice and co-liberation are being remixed and reoriented towards decolonial futures.