When settlers first arrived on Turtle Island, they imposed their beliefs and systems on the Indigenous peoples of this land. There was a widespread erasure and genocide of Indigenous cultures and ways of life. Western systems continue to cause harm for Indigenous people. What many Indigenous people want Canadians to understand is that Indigenous communities have their own worldviews and holistic approaches to health and wellbeing. Martin Morberg is the Two-Spirit Program Coordinator for the Community-Based Research Centre. “Indigenous people need to be supported in leading their own solutions. Understanding that there's an equal amount of validity to our own approaches, to our own systems as Indigenous people. We can collaborate with the western world and form equitable partnerships. We understand the effectiveness of these western sexual health tools, but we must lead the way in delivering them to our own communities, with our own approaches” he explains. Recently, Martin and the Two-Spirit program at CBRC undertook an important pilot program to try to improve both access to and trust of HIV self-test kits among Indigenous communities. With the guidance of their Two-Spirit community members, they conceptualized an Indigenous approach to the HIV self-test kits, a Medicine Bundle that holds Indigenous medicines and other spiritual items that support someone in their personal journey. According to the Two-Spirit program at CBRC, “the purpose of this Bundle is to bring the sacredness back into sex and offer access to a holistic approach to sexual health needs.” As Martin says, the Medicine Bundle is “A community-driven initiative led by and for Two-Spirit and Indigenous people.” The Medicine Bundle pilot launched in BC, and is will be launching a national expansion in the coming months with the support of CBRC, Communities, Alliances & Networks (CAAN), and other Indigenous organizations. Links https://www.cbrc.net/medicinebundle

Maureen Owino is a force. An HIV/AIDS activist and scholar, Maureen has been working in the HIV sector in Canada for over 15 years – most recently as the Director of the Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment (CAAT). Canada is lacking in services, organizations and frameworks for women living with HIV. Maureen attributes this to the lack of support from women’s counterparts in the HIV/AIDS response. “Being real allies means speaking truth to power. Standing up even when it's the most challenging thing to do. Standing up without fear of losing your privilege, or losing your voice,” says Maureen. “I have never stood in a place where I have seen gay white men stand up for women. I have not seen gay white men speak up for Black people publicly. I have not seen the men in this movement stand up and ask why it is we have no services for women. I still am waiting. I want to see them stand up and say it's time we fought for our women. Because the women have been with you every step of the way.” Maureen is addressing the gap in services for women as a co-creator and co-founder of WomenSpeak, the first national network for women Living with HIV. “Our main objective is to do a national needs assessment for women living with HIV to find out what gaps exist, gaps in services, gaps in healthcare, gaps in research – to ensure that within the next five years we will now have different organizations for women; different frameworks of interventions and strategies specifically for women living with HIV nationally.” Links https://paninbc.ca/2022/03/09/women-speak-comunity-building-wlhiv-canada/

Long before the U=U campaign got underway in 2016, Jade Elektra knew that if you’re a person living with HIV with an undetectable viral load, you cannot pass the virus onto your sexual partners. “You know, I'm no angel. So me and a couple of my partners – you know, things happen or whatever in the heat of the moment – and most of my partners in the past were not HIV positive,” explains the founder of PozPlanet magazine and PozTO Awards. “The concept of I'm undetectable, we just did something that was unsafe – you're fine. That happened a couple times.” While it may not have been news to her, U=U took on a whole new relevance when she performed a cover of Unforgettable, with the key lyric changed to Undetectable, at the AIDS Memorial in Toronto. “From the second that I said the first 'undetectable' on stage. I could just feel the crowd. They were there with me. The warmth. The energy. It was a moment,” Jade recalls. “When I performed that song. That's when I actually understood how important the message was, and how it affected other people to hear that message.” Canada was the first country in the world to endorse the science behind U=U in 2018. And this summer, the Canadian government endorsed a formal global declaration on Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U), which “takes the global commitment to U=U one step further by recognizing the value of the message as a tool to advance efforts to end HIV as a public health concern, and by committing countries to integrate U=U into their policies and programs.” Links https://www.facebook.com/groups/POZPLANET https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2022/07/canada-takes-action-by-endorsing-global-declaration-on-undetectable--untransmittable-uu.html

Muluba Habanyama grew up with HIV, living both with the virus as well as the stigma that it elicits from every day people. And this activist, journalist, researcher and educator (among many other hats) questions if society has come as far as science has in the response to HIV/AIDS. “When HIV first came about it affected a lot of men who have sex with men, Black women – and society just didn't care about those populations,” says Muluba. “And you're looking at it now, and as a Black woman living with HIV – I'm not sure if society cares about me as much as it does my counterparts.” Stigma is still rampant, and it’s the driving force behind Canada’s HIV epidemic. It stops people from getting tested. From having open conversations with their friends, family, and healthcare providers. It causes healthcare inequities to grow. That’s why projects like the OHTN’s Positive News are so important. Positive News is a series of bite-sized news programming with “the aim…to get more people on treatment, get more people tested. And ultimately, beat HIV stigma.” Links https://positivenews.ca/

Trevor Stratton thinks harm reduction may have saved his life. “Before I got HIV, I thought of HIV as a dirty thing. And then when I got HIV, I said, “oh my God, am I one of those people?” When I accessed harm reduction services, they didn't judge me.” Injection drugs are still a primary mode of transmission for HIV. While harm reduction services have at times been politicized, there is no denying that they work. Harm reduction isn’t just about providing safe substance use tools or safe supply, it’s about compassion and humanity. It’s about acknowledging that one life lost to drug toxicity is one life too many. It’s about reducing the negative outcomes that can be a result of injecting drugs. But many people who inject drugs are apprehensive to trust the healthcare system or to access harm reduction services. As Trevor notes, “for Indigenous people, we have a long history of being treated poorly in the healthcare system. The healthcare system was not made by us, or for us.” We need more innovative and accessible tools to get harm reduction to those who need it most but might not otherwise be able to access it. One way is through Our Healthbox, a new, interactive, vending machine that dispenses harm reduction and sexual health supplies, as well as self-tests for HIV and COVID. It’s a confidential and discreet way that can meet Canadians wherever they are, and is being rolled out across the country over the coming years. Links https://www.ourhealthbox.ca/

Harvey Michele was diagnosed with HIV back when HIV was still considered by many to be a death sentence. But even after three decades and a fulfilling life lived with HIV, he acknowledges that while it’s much easier to treat today medically – changing society’s perception of the virus is still a hill to climb. “There is a lot of stigma, and this is where I'm hoping that collectively or internationally that we look at that. And embrace people living with HIV as one of ‘us’ – an equal,” says the president of the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke's board of directors. “If we don’t erase stigma, we’ll never stop new cases of HIV.” Even forty years after the HIV epidemic began in Canada, HIV stigma persists. The Positive Effect is a facts-based, lived experience movement powered by people living with HIV that aims to shift mindsets and enrich lives so we can effectively end the HIV epidemic in Canada. Links https://www.positiveeffect.org/

Undetectable = Untransmittable. This simple equation is the sum of years of research and evidence proving that when a person is living with HIV, adhering to treatment, and achieving an undetectable viral load, they cannot pass HIV to another person – sexually or otherwise. Christian Hui thinks U=U has many uses in HIV advocacy and policy, not to mention helping with destigmatization. “You see a lot of people saying U=U has inspired them to come out with their status. For people that have considered becoming parents, U=U has made the process simpler and easier,” says the HIV/AIDS activist and one of the North American delegates in the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board NGO Delegation. Can U=U be used as a tool to help us achieve health equity for persons living with HIV? Christian is hopeful. “If the world can end the epidemic through U=U and equalizing all the inequalities and inequities, then that would be my wish.” Resource: https://www.preventionaccess.org/