AIDS Day event educates Indigenous youth about health and well-being

THUNDER BAY — A group of health care providers and Indigenous organizations held an event last week to educate youth about HIV and how to navigate health services.

Hosted by the Matawa Health Co-operative, the event on Dec. 1 to mark World AIDS Day was held at the Matawa Education and Care Centre in Thunder Bay.

The event also featured participation by Elevate NWO, Ontario Aboriginal Strategy, and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.

“We decided to hold this event because we do have a lot of students from our nine communities that go to school in Thunder Bay. And then from my own experience going to high school, I wasn’t aware of services,” said public health nursing lead Leola Bouchard-Pena.

The Matawa Health Co-operative encourages people to engage with health professionals about their health and well-being; especially, when it comes to their sexual health, and Bouchard-Pena promotes having an open dialogue with a medical professional as an essential step to reducing infections.

“Having a safe place for our indigenous youth to go is a great opportunity for our youth. We just want to increase awareness and knowledge of HIV. The ongoing prevention and education programs in our communities reduce the stigma and discrimination,” explained Bouchard-Pena.

Keynote speakers Dr. James Makokis and Anthony Johnson pointed out that many First Nations struggle with discussions around sexual health.

“Having these events is important because one of the legacies of residential schools is a lot of older individuals don’t talk about sex. It’s an uncomfortable topic because of the legacy of sexual assault that happened to children in residential schools,” Johnson said.

“Today’s youth are growing up in an environment where maybe someone never talked to them about loving yourself, loving your body, consent, getting tested, knowing your status and so anytime there’s an event that allows them to see that that is not only ok, but it’s a good thing to do. The impact of that is lifelong because suddenly someone is able to get resources and get help for a topic that may be in their community is not openly discussed.”

Makokis reflected on the amount of misinformation about HIV in First Nation communities. One of the challenges of educating remote communities is the sense of isolation among their members.

“We know that HIV can be anywhere and anyone can have it, but we don’t know what they look like. It’s really important to take that preventative proactive approach and also to address harm reduction. Many of our people are not in a position to be clean from substances and that’s ok. We have to meet them where they’re at,” said Makokis.

“I think that means for us to be self-reflexive as Indigenous peoples in terms of our culture and spirituality. How are we including those people into our ceremonies who have a right to participate? We know that that will be helpful in terms of preventing them from pursuing along that path. So, I think those are important conversations too with our knowledge holders and elders and leaders. Part of that is to be transparent and open about this topic in conversation and normalize it because we continue to have the highest rates of HIV infection in North America.”

Because of the residential school system, the trauma from those harrowing experiences is inter-generationa,l despite there being a generational disconnect between those whose childhoods were a part of that system and those children growing up today. The rampant sexual abuse has silenced sexual health for many First Nations people. As well, sexual activity isn’t the only way a person can contract HIV.

Therefore, Makokis and Johnson push the narrative of a trauma-informed approach like the AIDS Day event that provides youths with active harm reduction strategies and information that can lead to reducing the number of new inflections.

“I think what we should be focusing on having zero new infections for HIV because we have all the tools necessary to prevent our young people, our older people, our middle-aged people from contracting that, which actually, and if they do contract it, it’s 100 per cent treatable in terms of, if someone has it, if they’re undetectable, that means that they can’t transmit it,” Makokis said.

To ensure that Indigenous communities can reach a zero-infection rate, Makokis and Johnson believe that Canada’s governments need to invest more in recruiting and educating more healthcare workers to work in First Nations communities. Part of that is rebuilding an Indigenous-centric health system.

“It’s really on the government to make sure that funding is available. That timelines work with the community and that people can get trained so that when they return to the remote environments, they’re actually equipped with the latest information to make informed decisions,” Makokis said.