Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: North American Indigenous and African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities remain connected through shared and distinct histories of colonial oppression and resistance. As a result, both communities suffer from a variety of health disparities, including elevated rates of HIV. Framed by the history of social resistance that sparked the HIV movement in the 1980s, as well as Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation struggles, this project explores how ACB and Indigenous youth activists have responded to the HIV epidemic, and how they feel about building alliances across communities. Methods: Data for this paper are drawn from my doctoral research, in which I employed conventional qualitative methods (e.g. audio-recorded focus groups with 9 youth) with innovative feminist and arts-based approaches (digital storytelling and collaborative mural-making) to explore the possibilities for building alliances across difference. Data was transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using NVivo software, privileging a grounded theory approach. Results: Youth leaders were very optimistic about the potential for co-resistance and collaboration between their communities to promote health and share Indigenous worldviews of healing. However, youth participants identified that such collaborations are heavily fraught with tensions, contradictions and conflict, including the 'oppression olympics' that occur between different groups; settler of colour colonialism; anti-black racism; and the need for the decolonization of both groups. Discussions: I will unpack these findings using an anti-racist and critical Indigenous framework for understanding the integral role of youth in refocusing prevention efforts on community-created health promotion messaging and mobilization; and their potential as leaders in solidarity-building approaches to create mutually caring, decolonial collectives of resistance that addresses the social determinants of HIV.