Nov 21, 2022 — Claudette Cardinal’s Indigenous name is Wâpakwaniy, which in Cree translates to flower. Claudette is an Indigenous Peer Research Associate at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS – and she is also an Indigenous woman who has been living with HIV for over two decades.
“December 18 is when I was told long, long ago. In Alberta. And I got the lovely call from the clinic. Back then it was called the STD clinic; [I] got that phone call that you've been in contact with someone and you need to come in and get checked out.”
Claudette has since dedicated her work towards raising Indigenous women’s perspectives and voices in the response to HIV/AIDS. Some of the knowledge that Indigenous people bring to the fight with HIV/AIDS, says Wâpakwaniy, “is the healing properties, that love that comes from the energy.”
Communities and Alliances Network and Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort study are working together on the kʷiisḥinčiƛ: Transformation Project, which seeks to further culturally grounded research for the well-being of Indigenous women living with HIV.
