Doris Peltier on Indigenous Sex Workers

 

       In a 2019 interview with CBC, Doris Peltier, an advocate for women living with HIV/AIDS, states her 2010 diagnosis “was not something unique to me. Many indigenous women were being diagnosed late like myself,” (Deer), and acknowledges that women in indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by HIV. As a member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in Ontario, a front liner for Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week, and co-chair of the Community Aboriginal Advisory Board for Positive Aboriginal Women (Deer), Peltier makes strides in awareness education efforts, prevention care and increasing treatment accessibility. However, Peltier argues for communal processes and Indigenous knowledges (Deer) to heal a history of systematically undermining indigenous women to remedy generations of trauma.

        For nearly a hundred years, thousands of indigenous children were removed from their homes and sent to residential schools to ‘civilize’ and assimilate aboriginal populations (Bingham et al. 442). Additionally, during the 1960’s and the thirty following years, Patrick Johnson continued these efforts with the sixties scoop by funding provincial governments to have indigenous children placed in foster homes (Bingham et al. 443). By systematically erasing Canada’s indigenous populations’ identity by means of its youths, Canada’s colonial history managed to create inter-generational dissonance. These factors have rendered Canada’s indigenous people, especially women, significantly more at risk of becoming active members of the sex industry and catching or transmitting the HIV virus (Bingham et al. 441), all while having the lowest access to healthcare as indigenous sex workers (Socias et al. 9).


        Bingham et al. describe how post-colonial legislation, including the absence of policies or programs aimed at aboriginal women, have created generational trauma in indigenous communities (441). The legacy of assimilation policies created several generations of indigenous parents from environments of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Victims of these policies developed mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and unhealthy coping mechanisms leading to drug abuse (Bingham et al. 443). Due to the absence of reparative efforts, the cycle of violence is perpetuated, further traumatizing a future generation of aboriginal youths, and potentially exposing another subset of marginalized peoples to the sex industry and increased HIV/AIDS transmissions.

        Furthermore, research conducted by Socias et al. shows over a third of Vancouver street-based sex workers are of aboriginal descent, but sex workers overall described significant institutional barriers to accessing healthcare such as disproportionately long wait times, limited hours of operations and disrespect in receiving health care (Socias et al. 4). These vulnerable populations have also reported using injectable narcotics (4), significantly increasing their chances in contracting blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. This study shows that sex workers are less likely to reach out to police in cases of violence, go to healthcare providers during emergencies, or to receive necessary care (Socias et al. 6). However, ethnic and gender minority sex workers with HIV have the most difficulty overcoming institutional barriers in healthcare environments including HIV care, prevention, and testing (Socias et al. 9), increasing the risks of HIV transmission.

    

    Finally, both articles support Doris Peltier’s argument for community-based approaches to educate, prevent and increase accessibility to treatment by healing individuals through reclamation of their cultural and ethnic identities (Deer). However, Bingham et al., and Socías et al. argue for macro-level institutional changes to build reparations for the victims of residential school and Patrick Johnson’s sixties scoop. By enacting new policies acknowledging the risk factors for indigenous sex workers, decriminalizing sex work (Bingham et al. 446), eliminating wait times, making more healthcare services available under provincial insurance, and de-stigmatizing HIV and sex work (Socias et al. 9-10), the Canadian government will finally curb the HIV epidemic amongst indigenous women and sex workers.

Works Cited

Bingham, Britanny, et al. “Generational Sex Work and HIV Risk among Indigenous Women in a Street-Based Urban Canadian Setting.” Culture, Health & Sexuality, vol. 16, no. 4, 2014, pp. 440–452.

Deer, Ka’nhehsí:io. “Meet Doris Peltier, an Advocate for Indigenous Women Living with HIV | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 1 Dec. 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/doris-peltier-aboriginal-aids-awareness-week-1.5378116.

 “Doris Peltier.” Pacificaidsnetwork.org, Jan. 2021, pacificaidsnetwork.org/2021/01/08/pozcast-is-back/.

Socías, M. Eugenia, et al. “Universal Coverage without Universal Access: Institutional Barriers to Health Care among Women Sex Workers in Vancouver, Canada.” Plos One, vol. 11, no. 5, 2016.