HIV/AIDS: A rising concern amonst Aborignal Women

Finding out you are positive for HIV or Aids can be shattering, and there is growing concern amongst Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal AIDS service providers that HIV will continue to overwhelm young Aboriginal women who already face multiple levels of discrimination (Meharbadi et al., 2007). 

 

Recent studies today can confirm that there is a significant rise in the transmission of HIV/AIDS amongst aboriginal women in Canada. Statistics indicate that aboriginal women constituted 49.6 percent of newly diagnosed HIV cases, while non-aboriginal women comprised 20 percent of newly diagnosed (Judith & Norton, n.d.). In conjunction, “one third of new positive HIV test reports amongst aboriginal persons represented those under 30, as compare to a quarter non-Aboriginals. Approximately 60 percent of new infections amongst these young Aboriginal people were attributable to injection drug use, significantly higher than amongst non-Aboriginal young people” (Meharbadi et al., 2007 pg. 160).

More than half of Canada’s Aboriginal population live in urban areas, and despite the growing numbers, urban Aboriginal people in Canada continue to earn far less than the median average for non-urban counterparts (Benoit, Carroll, & Chaudhry, 2003). These urban Aboriginal people also tend to have “comparitavely higher rates of homelessness, greater housing needs and higher rates of suicide and are at particular risk of substance abuse, contracting tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS” (Benoit et al., 2003).

 When we take a look at Canadian history; residential schooling, colonization, assimilation, racism, loss of culture, etc,  these events have resulted in raised social problems amongst Aboriginal demographic leaving the population more vulnerable to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, violence, and high suicide rates (Ship, & Norton, n.d). During interviews with Inuit women in Montreal who worked as sex trade workers, and were at a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS; there was a correlation made between  moving to urbanized areas to escape sexual abuse, residential schooling, colonization, and assimilation (Ship, & Norton, n.d).  It has been noted that vulnerability to HIV risk often has more to so with “social and environmental factors such as stigma, poverty, discrimination, sexism, and racism than with individual behavior” (Ship, & Norton, n.d). Therefore, when trying to understand how HIV/AIDS impacts Aboriginal women it is crucial to evaluate the negative reciprocal affects that European contact and colonization has caused.

There is prevelant data that indicates that "many Aboriginal people, especially those residing in urban areas are placed at greater risk of falling through the cracks of the Canadian health care system and social security net".(Benoit et al., 2003). The United Nations Commitee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have articulated great concerns considering the provincial cut backs, and the closure of services on the health and well-being of marganalized populations, particularily aborinal women (Meharbadi et al., 2007). 


Cassandra

References:

Cecilia Benoit., Dena Carroll., & Munaza Chaudhry. (2003). In search of a Healing Place: Aboriginal women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Social Science & Medicine (56), 821-833.
           Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com

Azar Mehrabadi., Kevin J.P Craib., Katharina Patterson., Warner Adams., Akm Moniruzzaman., Barbara Ward- Burkitt., Martin T. Schechter., & Patricia M. Spittal. (2008). A Cedar Project: A comparison of HIV-related vulnerabilities amongst young Aboriginal women surviving drug use and sex work in two Canadian cities. Internation Journal of Drug Policy. (19) 159-168.
           Retreived from https://www.sciencedirect.com

Susan Judith Ship., & Laura Norton. (n.d). HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal Women in Canada. (21), 25-31.
            Retrieved from https://www.yorku.ca