2 Sask. Indigenous women spread awareness on HIV/AIDS through personal stories – Global News
December 1, 2023
December 1st marks World AIDS Day and the start of Indigenous AIDS Awareness Week to educate the public about HIV health-related issues and to break the stigma.
This is the opportunity that Ntawnis Piapot from the Piapot Cree Nation takes to share her mother’s story. Piapot’s mother, Elvina, was diagnosed with HIV in the mid 90s and was diagnosed with AIDS when Piapot started university in 2007.
“I caught myself a lot of the time taking care of her and taking on that caretaker role, not realizing what a big impact that would have on me as a student (and) a young woman,” said Piapot.
“Behind closed doors, I was battling something that I didn’t think anybody would understand. And I never spoke about my mom or her diagnosis until after I graduated. There was a sense of shame. There was this sense of stigma attached to it. And I always felt like it was something that nobody would understand. In turn, not speaking about it made me feel very isolated.”
