The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action were a challenge to non-Indigenous Canadians to do better. It has led to a conversation that has filtered down to the Ontario HIV sector. The question facing our sector is: What should be the work of Reconciliation in our sector, and, more specifically, in our organizations? The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has further challenged would-be allies to move from intentions to action.

In October 2018, at the Ontario AIDS Network’s HIV Sector Leadership Symposium, a Reconciliation in Action Working Group was formed. It was recognized that for most of the sector’s organizations, there is much work to be done, but that guidance is needed to support that work.

Following creation of the Reconciliation in Action Working Group during the Ontario AIDS Network’s 2018 Leadership Symposium, organizations within our sector agreed that we must begin and/or renew our efforts toward Reconciliation.

This reinvigorated process must:

Draw from a renewed commitment to self-education

• Focus on transferring of power and decision-making
• Transfer funding to Indigenous-led organizations and projects.
• Through their work and collaboration, the Reconciliation Working Group created a guidance document to support organization in the HIV sector to decolonize their work and begin or continue along the path toward Reconciliation.