HIV changed Doris Peltier’s life completely. Originally from an Aboriginal community in Lake Huron, Ontario, she spent the 1990s on stage in theaters across Canada and elsewhere. Under the pseudonym of Doris Linklater, the Anishnabe actress has played flamboyant characters, notably under the pen of the famous Aboriginal playwright Tomson Highway. Then, in the early 2000s, she became very ill and learned that she had AIDS. That’s how I knew I had HIV
relate-t-elle.
In Canada, new infections with the virus have declined somewhat in recent years. This is particularly the case among homosexual men, who were the first affected by the pandemic. But in other parts of the population, women and aboriginals among others, infections are still on the rise.
Doris Peltier is well aware of this reality. I soon discovered that there were very few services for Aboriginal women living with HIV and that many of these services were created for men.
she regrets. From the beginning of my journey with HIV, once I felt better, I started attending conferences […] I was going to listen to what was being done as research and there was very little work for us, women living with HIV, in particular aboriginal women.
Hoping to turn the tide, she threw herself into research. She currently coordinates the Visualizing Health study, in collaboration with McMaster University. The project, led by and for Indigenous women living with HIV, investigates the reality of these women and how First Nations culture can help improve their condition.
It’s not a traditional way of doing research where you enlist people to answer a questionnaire just once, she explains. It’s a process, it’s regarding building trust, relationships.
This different way of looking at research was evident last October in Saskatoon, where Doris Peltier had invited some sixty women living with HIV as well as public health researchers to take stock of their work. For three days, percussion workshops, ceremonies of healing
and the creation of a collective quilt punctuated the discussions.
Ms. Peltier believes that by refocusing on their Aboriginal roots, women living with HIV can regain a sense of self-esteem, a sense of belonging, favorable to their health. Culture heals
she says.
In another study on the sexual health of women living with HIV in Canada, the results of which were presented at this seminar, drug use and the rate of incarceration had decreased among participants between the beginning and the end of the survey, while the use of antiretrovirals had increased.
HIV, but also violence, addiction to drugs and alcohol, the isolation experienced by these women were at the center of the discussions which sometimes took on the appearance of group therapy. Frankly, HIV is the least of my problems
has also launched a participant.
How many times do these women have to tell what is happening to them?
wonders Doris Peltier. The inequities, the gaps in the care they receive, the poverty. How many times do we have to hear it?
she protests.
This is somewhat the message she conveyed to participants at the International AIDS Conference last summer in Montreal, where she was invited to speak on the main platform of the conference. I am also a member of an advisory group with the World Health Organization, and one of my recommendations is to recognize indigenous populations as a priority [dans la lutte au VIH, NDLR] in every country in the world where Indigenous people live. We’re falling behind and we’re not going to hit the targets
she said on the sidelines of her presentation.
Doris Peltier refers to the 95-95-95 targets established by UNAIDS. That by 2030, 95% of people with HIV know their status, that 95% of those infected receive antiretroviral treatment (triple therapy) and that 95% of those treated patients have an undetectable viral load. However, in 2021 in Canada, the data was respectively 85%, 88% and 92%.
Last year, Doris Peltier received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa for her involvement in the fight once morest HIV. In Saskatoon, she was also honoured, in their own way, by the women she has supported for two decades. When she announced to them that at 65, she wanted to reduce her activities, they draped her in a traditional blanket and surrounded her with their arms while singing.: “You gave me my voice”, she is moved. I always tell them that they found their voice themselves through our work.”,”text”:”Some of them said to me: “You gave me my voice”, if she moves. I always tell them that they have found their own voice through our work.”}}”>Some of them said to me: “You gave me my voice”, she is moved. I always tell them that they have found their own voice through our work.
When he died, André Morneau wanted to donate his body to science.Photo: Radio-Canada / Gaëlle Lussiaà-Berdou
