A collaboration success story!
Letter from the Editors
The AHA Centre and REACH’s CBR Collaborative Centre have a decade-long and celebrated history of collaboration. We sit on each other’s leadership committees and have co-facilitated and co-hosted many events over the years too. Still, we are always looking for ways to stretch the boundaries of partnership between the AHA Centre and the CBR Collaborative in support of our respective communities. And so, when we approached our colleagues at REACH to gauge whether they would consider co-editing a volume of the Journal of Indigenous HIV Research (JIHR), they jumped at the idea. We knew that a collaboration between the two Centres would be an opportunity to create something special together, but we had no idea just how extraordinary our journey to publishing Volume 11 would be... Read more
The AHA Centre and REACH’s CBR Collaborative Centre have a decade-long and celebrated history of collaboration. We sit on each other’s leadership committees and have co-facilitated and co-hosted many events over the years too. Still, we are always looking for ways to stretch the boundaries of partnership between the AHA Centre and the CBR Collaborative in support of our respective communities. And so, when we approached our colleagues at REACH to gauge whether they would consider co-editing a volume of the Journal of Indigenous HIV Research (JIHR), they jumped at the idea. We knew that a collaboration between the two Centres would be an opportunity to create something special together, but we had no idea just how extraordinary our journey to publishing Volume 11 would be... Read more
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Commentaries
Quilting allyship in a time COVID-19
Andrea Mellor
This commentary reflects on ways the coronavirus pandemic has offered opportunities to practice critical allyship in a time of uncertainty. The author reflects on how conversations with her mother, a public health manager, highlighted ways that responding to the needs of tent city residents during COVID-19 helped stitch together a community of allies to support increased access to health services. These conversations revealed ways that allyship... Full Abstract & Author Bio
Andrea Mellor
This commentary reflects on ways the coronavirus pandemic has offered opportunities to practice critical allyship in a time of uncertainty. The author reflects on how conversations with her mother, a public health manager, highlighted ways that responding to the needs of tent city residents during COVID-19 helped stitch together a community of allies to support increased access to health services. These conversations revealed ways that allyship... Full Abstract & Author Bio
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Making Allyship Work: Allyship Perspectives in a Community-Based Research Study
Katsistohkwí:io Jacco, Madeline Gallard, Joanna Mendell, Darren Lauscher, Deb Schmitz, Michelle Stewart, Catherine Worthington, Nancy Clark, Janice Duddy, & Sherri Pooyak
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which the Making it Work study team engages in allyship work. Making it Work is a community-based research (CBR) study looking to highlight how integrated community services for people living HIV, hepatitis C, and/or challenges with mental health or substance use work best for people accessing them. This project has a particular focus on services that are provided through an Indigenous worldview of health... Full Abstract & Author Bios
Katsistohkwí:io Jacco, Madeline Gallard, Joanna Mendell, Darren Lauscher, Deb Schmitz, Michelle Stewart, Catherine Worthington, Nancy Clark, Janice Duddy, & Sherri Pooyak
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which the Making it Work study team engages in allyship work. Making it Work is a community-based research (CBR) study looking to highlight how integrated community services for people living HIV, hepatitis C, and/or challenges with mental health or substance use work best for people accessing them. This project has a particular focus on services that are provided through an Indigenous worldview of health... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Stories
Let the Fires Unite: Our journey of allyship
Claudette Cardinal, Niloufar Aran
Claudette Cardinal, Niloufar Aran
This paper is a collection of herstories woven together to describe the journeys that Claudette—a Cree Indigenous Women—and Niloufar—a Persian immigrant settler—went on together to find and practice allyship. The collaboration between the diversity of these two women’s herstories and how their time together unfolds in a beautiful tale of women from different backgrounds and how they came together to create meaningful memories and learn from... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Welcoming and Navigating Allyship in Indigenous Communities
Mikayla Hagel, Miranda Keewatin, & Dr. Carrie Bourassa
Mikayla Hagel, Miranda Keewatin, & Dr. Carrie Bourassa
The Morning Star Lode (MSL) is an Indigenous Health Research Lab Located in Regina, Saskatchewan and conducts community-based research within the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council. While discussing the importance of utilizing Indigenous research methodologies when engaging with Indigenous communities, this story discusses the theme and importance of allyship in any relationship. While facilitating meaningful and reciprocal relationships... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Allyship: Braiding Our Wisdom, Our Hearts and Our Spirits
Denise Jaworsky and Valerie Nicholson
Denise Jaworsky and Valerie Nicholson
This is a story about our relationship – a front-line warrior/Elder/community researcher and a settler physician/student/researcher. We would like to share our history with you as an example of how relationships form the foundation of allyship. We present our joint history, weaving our voices together throughout this paper.... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Student Paper
This is a very personalized document following a Social Work perspective which is the context it was written within. It is an accounting of my Social Work Placement experience as a researcher at the AHA Centre a program of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN)... Full Abstract & Author Bio
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Research & Findings
Creating change using two-eyed seeing, believing and doing; responding to the journey of northern First Nations people with HIV
Linda Larcombe, Elizabeth Hydesmith, Gayle Restall, Laurie Ringaert, Matthew Singer, Rusty Souleymanov, Yoav Keynan, Michael Payne, Kelly S MacDonald, Pamela Orr, Albert McLeod
Linda Larcombe, Elizabeth Hydesmith, Gayle Restall, Laurie Ringaert, Matthew Singer, Rusty Souleymanov, Yoav Keynan, Michael Payne, Kelly S MacDonald, Pamela Orr, Albert McLeod
In Manitoba, Canada there is a critical need to understand the journey that northern First Nation people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) experience and navigate. Unique factors make the northern journey different from all other Manitobans. These include geographic isolation in small Reserve communities with limited health care services, difficulties in maintaining confidentiality, stigma, and a lack of culturally appropriate programs...
Full Abstract & Author Bios
Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Drivers of Sexual Health Knowledge for Two-Spirit, Gay, Bi and/or Indigenous Men Who Have Sex with Men (gbMSM)
Harlan Pruden, Travis Salway, Theodora Consolacion, Jannie Wing-Sea Leung, Aidan Ablona, Ryan Stillwagon
Harlan Pruden, Travis Salway, Theodora Consolacion, Jannie Wing-Sea Leung, Aidan Ablona, Ryan Stillwagon
Centering Two-Spirit (2S) and Indigenous experiences and ways is critical for more respectful, reciprocal, relevant, and responsible sexual health research with gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). The Two-Spirit Dry Lab, a collaborative initiative of Indigenous and settler researchers, conducted a study to explore drivers of sexual health knowledge with 2S and other gbMSM community(ies)...
Full Abstract & Author Bios
Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Indigenous Resilience and Allyship in the Face of HIV Non-Disclosure Criminalization
Emily Snyder and Margaret Kîsikâw Piyêsîs
Emily Snyder and Margaret Kîsikâw Piyêsîs
This article examines the strengths of Indigenous people living with HIV, and of the people working in support of this community, in the context of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. Although there are many challenging and difficult realities related to HIV criminalization, here we focus on Indigenous resilience to centre Indigenous perspectives and to challenge settler colonialism. This discussion stems from 26 interviews that were part of a community-based case study... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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miyo-pimâtisiwin iyiniw-iskwênâhk (Good Health/Living Among Indigenous Women): Visioning Women-Centred Health Services for Indigenous Women Living with HIV
Carrie Bourassa, Miranda Keewatin, Jen Billan, Betty McKenna, Meghan Chapados, Mikayla Hagel, Marlin Legare, Heather O’Watch, Sebastien Lefebvre
Carrie Bourassa, Miranda Keewatin, Jen Billan, Betty McKenna, Meghan Chapados, Mikayla Hagel, Marlin Legare, Heather O’Watch, Sebastien Lefebvre
Women living with HIV use many services to support and to improve their health and wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of women living with HIV on the availability, value, and meaning of women-centred HIV care services. The research explored the narratives of what contributes to the health needs of Indigenous women living with HIV through a Photovoice project. This research aims to examine strength-based factors, through the use of Photovoice... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Reflections on Acts of Allyship from a Collaborative Pilot of Dried Blood Spot Testing
Danielle Atkinson, Rachel Landy, Raye St. Denys, Kandace Ogilvie, Carrielynn Lund, and Catherine Worthington, on behalf of the DRUM & SASH team
Danielle Atkinson, Rachel Landy, Raye St. Denys, Kandace Ogilvie, Carrielynn Lund, and Catherine Worthington, on behalf of the DRUM & SASH team
Allyship with Indigenous Peoples is defined as characteristics or actions that actively support social justice with an aim to reduce inequities experienced by non-dominant groups. Métis-specific perspectives on allyship are very limited. This article presents a reflection upon allyship within a multi-partner dried blood spot testing (DBST) pilot with Métis communities in Alberta. METHODS: Using a case study approach, we reflected on our experience working within the collaborative DBST pilot... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Towards Amaamawi’izing (Collaborating) in Interdisciplinarity Allyship: An Example from the Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research
Randy Jackson, Renée Masching, William Gooding, Aaron Li, Bridget Marsdin, Doris Peltier
Randy Jackson, Renée Masching, William Gooding, Aaron Li, Bridget Marsdin, Doris Peltier
Although we tend to conceptualize allyship as grounded in and guided by Western knowledge, it is also consistent with Indigenous knowledge systems. Inspired by our work with the Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research—as work that spans the four pillars of health—we explore how amaamawi’izing (collaborating) facilitates the interdisciplinary and collaborative work of scholars working alongside Indigenous communities in Canada. Similar to the Two Row Wampum used in research... Full Abstract & Author Bios
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Working together: Allies in researching gender and combination antiretroviral therapy treatment change
Claudette Cardinal, Carly Marshall, Alison R. McClean, Niloufar Aran, Katherine W. Kooij, Jason Trigg, Erin Ding, Kate Salters, Robert S. Hogg on behalf of the CANOC Collaboration
Claudette Cardinal, Carly Marshall, Alison R. McClean, Niloufar Aran, Katherine W. Kooij, Jason Trigg, Erin Ding, Kate Salters, Robert S. Hogg on behalf of the CANOC Collaboration
This is a story of working together collaboratively, and as reflexive colleagues, to answer the research question: Do men, women and transgender individuals in Canada experience the same number of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) treatment changes? It was a long and winding journey, with bumps along the way, as together we developed a meaningful approach to using data from the Canadian HIV Observational Cohort (CANOC). Reciprocal learning and continued growth were at the heart of this project... Full Abstract
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