Because of advances in treatment over the past 30 years, the number of older people living with HIV is growing. This is important for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, given their continuing over-representation in HIV diagnoses. However, little is known about the experiences of older, HIV-positive Indigenous Peoples. Taking a strength-based approach, this research explored how older Indigenous men with HIV conceptualize successful aging. Research was conducted in partnership with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis men, ranging in age from 43 to 63 years who had been HIV positive for 10–29 years participated in sharing circles and interviews. An open analytic approach was used to explore the content of transcripts, and codes were collaboratively developed through an inductive and iterative process. From our analysis of commonalities across Indigenous groups, we offer our insights on the application of the successful aging model to Indigenous men aging with HIV.

The Nak’azdli Whut’en, a First Nations community in northern British Columbia, recognized the importance of preserving Elders’ wisdom and sharing cultural knowledge and oral traditions across generations. We report learnings from an intergenerational digital storytelling workshop led by the Nak’azdli Health Centre in partnership with community organizations and academic partners. Framed by a participatory action design in accordance with the Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP®) principles, a 10 session workshop was created and piloted. WeVideo technology was used to facilitate knowledge sharing between elementary school students and Elders. Through storytelling, the Elders shared their wisdom and knowledge. The students recorded the stories and added imagery and sounds to capture their understandings in a digital format. Thus, Elders and students worked in partnership to co-create digital stories to create a cultural legacy for future generations. This workshop aligned with the British Columbia school curriculum, fostered intergenerational relationships between Elders and youth, helped preserve cultural identity, and facilitated opportunity for meaningful contribution for Elders and youth to their community.

Physical activity is widely considered to be a significant contributing factor to how “successfully” one ages. There are, however, certain groups whose voices have not been widely heard in discussions around physical activity and aging, particularly those from diverse cultural backgrounds. In this research, we explored how Alaska Native Elders perceive the role of physical activity as they age and its contribution to successful aging. Based on semi-structured interviews with 41 Elders, the results show that engaging in physical activity was not just seen as a personal responsibility to maintain health and age successfully, but also as a way to resist Western society’s dominant view of older adults as deteriorating and declining by being physically active regardless of age; to improve or maintain their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health; and/or to enable them to continue participating in subsistence activities that are rooted in their culture and traditional roles as Elders.