Pubdate: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 Source: Eastern Door, The (CN QU) Copyright: 2003 The Eastern Door Contact: http://www.easterndoor.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2464 Author: Maxine Hillary, M.A. HIV/AIDS IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES: MORE THAN A THREAT TO HEALTH A health educator from the Southern California Indian Centers' Job and Health Fair facetiously told a reported in the mid-90s, "We don't have an AIDS problem in the Native American Community. We don't have homosexuals and we don't use needle drugs." She stressed that this denial of a pending AIDS crisis in the indigenous population was what made the communities, already threatened by alcoholism and diabetes so vulnerable. Nearly two years later a Canadian study reports that while the majority of Aboriginal Canadian youths surveyed received HIV/AIDS information at school, seven out of ten reported having unprotected sex. The rate of AIDS among U.S. tribal communities is about 2,540 - over 2,000 of which are males. Across the globe, 11 million AIDS orphans in Africa struggle to survive. The loss of their parents has robbed them of the safety and security all parents strive to give their children. But the disease hasn't only stolen their families, it's taking their cultures, languages and knowledge that has sustained their peoples for generations. Primary to this loss is the threat to the continent's food supply and the plants that feed and heal the people and bring balance to the ecosystem of Africa, perhaps the entire planet. As of 2002, 42 million people had died from AIDS, of which 28 million were adults. Nearly half were women, the primary caretakers of children. In places like Liberia, 95 percent of the people are from Indigenous tribal communities speaking numerous tribal languages, all of which are endangered as are tribal religions still practised by nearly half of the country. In Kenya, less than ten percent of households headed by orphans report that they have enough traditional knowledge to be able to carry on the farming practices passed down by their ancestors. These practices include the cultivation of a diverse variety of crops that have ensured a delicate balance in the local environment. A food crisis could be the result. Disease has long been the conduit for the decimation of tribal communities. And while socialized health care and aggressive condom campaigns attempt to halt an epidemic, the fact remains that HIV/AIDS threatens Aboriginal Canadians at a rate five times that of non-Native Canadians. According to a report by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Information Centre in Ottawa, Canadian tribal communities face far greater incidences of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination, jurisdictional divisions, funding shortages and limited access to quality HIV testing. These factors make it difficult for Canadian Aboriginal communities to respond in ways that equalize the AIDS response to that of most urban nonnative communities. By the end of the '90s, 11,525 Canadians had died from AIDS and 40,100 Canadians were living with HIV. In recent years deaths from AIDS have decreased due to the introduction of antiretroviral drugs, and while there appears to be fewer reported HIV/AIDS cases in Native communities, the reality is that the percentage of new AIDS diagnoses among Aboriginal Canadians has increased by nearly nine percent. HIV/AIDS continues to affect Aboriginal peoples in a manner disproportionate to the rest of the Canadian population. There are reasons for the increase. These include higher rates of unprotected sex as illustrated by a disproportionate rate of teen pregnancy, higher rates of incarceration where the activities that spread HIV are increased, higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, increased mobility and overall lower health and socio-economic status. While HIV/AIDS has long been viewed in Native communities as a disease of gay white men and needle users, recent statistics point to Aboriginal women as the fastest growing population for HIV/AIDS. The main factor cited is intravenous drug use and unprotected sex with infected partners. As in the United States where the highest growing rates of HIV/AIDS occur among African American women in the Washington, DC area for predominately the same reasons, the unborn children of these women add to the statistic. It's hard for those living in the "developed" world to see the threat to culture and traditional knowledge in the same way it is recognized in developing countries where antiviral drugs are expensive and hard to come by and HIV/AIDS education is just beginning. AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was in the '80s. But HIV/AIDS can still threaten Native communities. These drugs are expensive and resources in many communities are scarce. Communities have not yet come to terms with those living with HIV. Cultures uncomfortable talking about sexual themes and a continuing denial that these factors exist continue to contribute to the increase. Those infected with HIV are often stigmatized, prevented from holding employment, shunned by family and friends. Perhaps the greatest solution to HIV/AIDS in Native communities comes from within. While there exists great diversity of language, values, customs and lifestyles, the basic values among Aboriginal Canadians and Native Americans are in many ways similar. The interdependence long valued in tribal communities instills caring, empathy and connection. Programs that incorporate these values and attempt to use traditional medicine and spirituality have shown greater success in combatting HIV/AIDS. Educating youth and keeping the messages of safe sex and abstinence from drugs and alcohol is another strategy. While many parents find it difficult to counsel their children on these issues, depending on school-based education alone means that once the class is over, the behaviours begin or continue. Vigilance in keeping the messages consistent and frequent counts as an effective way to prevent new HIV/AIDS outbreaks. In December of 2002, Selena Moose, an Inupiat whose family chose to go public with the story of her brother who had been infected with AIDS told a reporter, "HIV can wipe a village out," At least a quarter of new HIV cases in Alaska are among Natives - 16 percent of the entire Alaskan population. To Moose, the threat faced by Indigenous Africans didn't seem so remote. While most would have borne the burden of her brother's infection in silence. Moose was adamant about education the public. As her brother fought his battle with AIDS at home in the care of family and friends, she stoically told an audience at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. "We had to tell our people because not telling them means extinction."