"Every One of Us Is a Strand in That Basket": Weaving Together Stories of Indigenous Wellness and Resilience From the Perspective of Those With Lived and Living Experience With HIV/Hepatitis C Virus.

The paper reports stories from a 4-day retreat, so it does not show whether the retreat changes health outcomes. Victoria and 13 other women were invited, and the circles included six to nine women, so the findings may not apply to other Indigenous women or other settings. The retreat combined sharing circles, ceremony, land activities, informal time and post-retreat discussions, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Four researchers who did not attend the retreat analysed the transcripts, with help from a peer researcher and an Elder, so interpretation may not capture all details of the circles. The retreat was both a healing event and a data-gathering event, so the setting may not be purely research or purely care. The authors state there are no generalizable implications or correct understandings of the future. Participants were Indigenous women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside living with or at risk of HIV/HCV, so the findings may not apply to men, other communities or people without these experiences.

The study was funded by Canadian Institute of Health Research, Grant #371496. Alexandra King reported consultancies or honoraria from AbbVie and Gilead. Sandy Leo Laframboise reported honoraria from Pewaseskwan. Luke Heidebrecht, Subhashini Iyer and Claudia Madampage reported no financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Do not read the retreat as proven to improve HIV or HCV health. It reports what women said in sharing circles from a 4-day retreat that combined ceremony, land activities and informal time, and the authors state there are no generalizable implications.