Sexual Health And HIV Prevention Outreach By And For Indigenous Youth

Background: This paper examines how a group of Indigenous youth leaders take up the notion of leadership in the context of HIV prevention.

Methods: Taking Action II is an Indigenous community based participatory action research project. Eighteen Indigenous youth leaders were invited from across Canada to share their narratives about their passion for HIV prevention through digital storytelling. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants after they developed their digital stories, and then again several months later. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify major themes arising from Indigenous youth leaders' responses.

Results: Central to participants' visions of Indigenous leadership were the following characteristics: confidence, trustworthiness, being a good listener, humility, patience, dedication, resilience and being healthy. Challenges to leadership included: being a member of a young population, a lack of role models, tokenism, intergenerational trauma, HIV stigma, and pressure to succeed. Despite these challenges, youth were demonstrating leadership in a variety of capacities within their communities. Common themes included: starting small, education, mobilizing community, teaching others, and preserving culture.

Discussion: In contrast to dominant individualized mainstream ideals, Indigenous youth think about leadership as connected to relationships with their families, communities, histories, legacies and health. Cultivating and supporting Indigenous youth leaders is an important part of the solution in tackling the devastating HIV statistics and in making positive change within our communities.