Project 461028

The 2022 World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Viral Hepatitis (WIPCVH) will be the third such conference to address the disproportionate burden of viral hepatitis and associated morbidity experienced by Indigenous people globally. It was conceived by Indigenous people who wanted to create opportunity for Indigenous people and our wonderful allies to connect, network and learn from each other about Indigenous-led and Indigenous-centric initiatives to meet the WHO viral hepatitis elimination goals. There have been two previous successful in person WIPCVH - the inaugural in Alice Springs, NT, Australia (September 2014), and the second in Anchorage, AK, United States (August 2017). Canada will host the next one in Saskatoon, SK (June 22-25, 2022). It was scheduled for September 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19. There is great excitement about the 2022 WIPCVH; the conference website, which went live in late January 2020, has already received over 5,000 visitors and we have been contacted by interested people from countries as diverse as Brazil, Ghana and India. The 2022 WIPCVH, chaired by Dr. Alexandra King (citizen, Nipissing First Nation), Cameco Chair in Indigenous Health and Wellness at the University of Saskatchewan, will feature hepatitis experts and Indigenous health and wellness leaders. There will be presentations from Indigenous people and organizations who use traditional approaches to wellness, sometimes in tandem with Western medicine, to treat hepatitis. Medical and frontline experts will share their latest developments. As this is an Indigenous conference, we will focus on work being done by and with Indigenous people. We will embrace the wisdom and knowledge of Elders and have safe spaces for people to share their lived and living experiences of hepatitis through sharing circles, storytelling and traditional teachings. We will also include ceremony and cultural performances, which are important aspects of Indigenous health and wellness.