Aboriginal people key to fight HIV/AIDS
- Angela Hill | August 22, 2014
Indigenous groups getting a voice at the International AIDS Conference
Now, more than ever, Aboriginal Peoples are being recognized as a key population in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
While on the international stage, Canada is seen as a country that supports indigenous groups’ work to end HIV/AIDS; it’s also used as a warning to other nations to show the need to get culturally appropriate programing of HIV prevention to First Nation communities.
“For me as an Aboriginal Australian, looking at the HIV data from Canada is a real concern for me,” said James Ward, an associate professor in Australia and first-ever indigenous plenary speaker, at the recent International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. “When you represent 4 per cent of the population and 23 per cent of all HIV diagnosis in that country it’s of real concern.”
What increases the concern for him is the parallels he sees between Canada and what is currently going on in Australia. He said over the past two years they are seeing the highest ever reported number of new HIV cases and injection drug use is starting to increase among aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Remote aboriginal communities have very high rates of sexually transmitted infections – up to 50 per cent prevalence in 16 to 19 year olds.
“Those populations have been immune from HIV, but once it gets there, and we’re not on top of it, it will escalate rapidly like it has in places like Saskatchewan,” he said. “I learn all the time from the HIV data from Canada – and so we should, it’s our Indigenous brothers and sisters from the northern hemisphere – what I do know is our potency of intervention needs to be much earlier. We need to be in on top of it.” “I think we need to ramp up our activities so that in 10 years’ time we still have a good news story in HIV in Australia.”
He said it’s not good enough to acknowledge that there is increased drug use. “We need to change our strategy so we don’t end up in the same situation as Canada and its First Nations people and HIV.”
Canada’s health minister, Rona Ambrose, attended the International AIDS Conference and spoke with a number of Aboriginal groups such as the International Indigenous Working Group on HIV/AIDS (IIWGHA).
Dr. Gregory Taylor, deputy chief public health officer of Canada, attended those meetings as well.
“There was deliberate effort to plan meetings here. It’s interesting, it’s not that you have to go half way around the world to have meetings with people in your own backyard, but they were here and we took advantage of meeting with them,” he said. IIWGHA is based in Canada through the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network.
“These are key populations that we need to hear from and I think that’s why our minister is making a lot of energy and time to connect and listen to those populations, so we can better address our interventions and support them.”
Clive Aspin, an aboriginal man from New Zealand and leader with IIWGHA, attended the meeting. He said he was pleased with the response from the Canadian government. “It was a tremendous opportunity to talk about some of the issues that are really important to IIGHWA … she encouraged us to continue to fight for a place at the table and she was extremely receptive about the things we talked about,” he said.
“She acknowledges, accepts and understands the significant disparities that exist in Canada and she’s fully aware of the fact that something significant and generous has to be done to make a real impact on aboriginal communities in Canada.”
“I feel that the federal government is willing to consider some of the suggestions that we are making in terms of interventions,” Denise Lambert, with the Kimamow Atoskanow Foundation, said about the meetings.
There are a few things that the Canadian government still needs to do, she said. The need to acknowledge and validate the historical impacts that affect First Nations and Inuit health by looking at historical and current policies and figure out how to address the inequity in service access, she said.
“That is everyone having equitable access, no matter if you are in a far northern community or if you are in the city, you should have the same access.”
Lambert also sees the need for leadership of aboriginal communities to buy into the public health message.