Brisbane-based social change agency Carbon Creative has launched a new PR campaign aimed at increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, the campaign is a celebration of First Nations culture and features both prominent Indigenous celebrities as well as host of ‘everyday’ heroes who have proudly been vaccinated.
Featuring a series of content videos created by Indigenous-owned, Carbon Creative, and directed by proud Yindjibarndi man, Tristan Houghton, the campaign aims to inspire an ongoing sense of pride in its audience – spurring them into action to protect the people and culture they love.
“We knew that fear or lecturing wasn’t going to change vaccine hesitancy for this audience,” said Carbon Creative managing director and Birri Gubba man, Wayne Denning.
“So instead we looked to inspire and remind all First Nations people what we know to be true – we have 60,000 years of history, culture, art, song, dance and language to be proud of and worth protecting.”
The campaign’s high profile names include rapper Baker Boy (who also provided the music for the campaign); one of world’s pre-eminent didgeridoo players, William Barton; renowned chef Nornie Bero; model Samantha Harris, emerging artist Tori-Jay Mordey; and Paralympian Amanda Reid.
“I’m a proud Yolngu boy, and in Yolngu Matha, Marryuna means dancing. Dancing and music bring us all together and nothing makes me happier than performing and hitting the road to share my music with community,” said Baker Boy.
“I’m passionate about protecting my mobs’ culture, dance and music. But none of that matters unless we protect and safeguard our future and we can only do that by having a yarn to our health care workers about getting the COVID-19 jab.”
CREDITS
Indigenous Consultant: Wayne Denning
Group Account Director: Rebecca Blinco
Senior Account Manager: Sarah Fitzpatrick Producer: Angela Hueppauff
Co-Creative Directors: Monique Kneepkens & Sandra Hind
Creative: Andrew Leftley Director: Tristan Houghton
Photographer: Tristan Houghton
Post-Production: 3P
