Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous People

but have felt out of place in organizations that are designed for and run by middle class white men. The women Campbell has worked with have often had the same experience, being unable to discuss their illness with partners or other members of their community and finding a dearth of accessible support organizations. Gender, class and ethnicity interact in the impact that HIV/AIDS has on individuals. Campbell shies away from the implication of her study, which is that there is a hierarchy of suffering, gay men being the disease’s most prominent victims but also the best supported. Yet it seems clear that there is such a hierarchy. Researchers should not be ashamed of naming it. The spread and impact of the disease reflects – though by no means perfectly – the differential access to resources, power and control of different groups in different parts of the world. Campbell has produced a moving work, drawing on extensive research: it certainly should be read by those in government who are meant to be formulating policies to combat HIV/AIDS and poverty. The message is that, without strong action at international, national and community levels, social exclusion and the virus combine to produce a tragic outcome for vulnerable men, women and children.