The Boom Province: A Syndemic Approach to the HIV/AIDS Explosion among Aboriginal Persons in Urban Saskatchewan

Abstract

The correlation between poverty and the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases is striking in Saskatchewan’s urban centres. Recent research indicates that the current spike of HIV/AIDS cases in the province disproportionately affects young Aboriginal women who live in Saskatoon’s inner-city neighbourhoods. Because HIV/AIDS is both a pathological and social reality, this paper uses a syndemic approach to analyze coinfection, injection drug use, poverty, gender, and ethnicity/race as they pertain to the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic in Saskatchewan. Taking into consideration Canada’s colonial history and ongoing neo-colonialism facing Aboriginal persons, this paper explores the relationship between health configurations and larger political and economic systems that result in structural violence.