Reconciliation Australia
At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians. Change isn’t easy. But we relished the opportunity to help Reconciliation Australia challenge all Australians to Be Brave. Make Change.
The brief
Over the last half-century many significant steps towards reconciliation have been taken. But while generations of Australians have fought hard for meaningful change, future gains are likely to take just as much, if not more, effort. In 2021 Reconciliation Australia encouraged all Australians to take action during National Reconciliation Week and saw unprecedented response to their suggested actions. In 2022, however, they wanted to challenge all Australians to take action towards reconciliation every day—where they lived, worked, played and socialised. With this goal front and centre, Carbon Creative and Reconciliation Australia set about developing a National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme and campaign that could inspire people from all walks of life to continuously contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
The good
Over a matter of months Carbon Creative worked closely with Reconciliation Australia to develop a theme for National Reconciliation Week 2022. To prompt substantive change, we needed to be more direct with the current state of play with all Australians and put the ball firmly in everyone’s court. Fighting racism is hard … empowering self-determination is hard ... making institutional change is hard ... Reconciliation is not an easy journey, and it takes a level of bravery on the part of all of us to ‘enter the fight’ and work towards making real, lasting, change. Before we knew it, Be Brave. Make Change. was born. But then we had to create the campaign to support the theme. Our vision was one of bold, bright positivity, that we brought to life with the help of Torres Strait Islander artist, Tori-Jay Mordey. The iconic family of characters she created to represent the broad spectrum of Australian society brought life, realness and emotion to the theme and helped the audience ‘find themselves’ in the reconciliation process. These characters were then combined with bold typography and a vibrant colour palette in a harmonious and positive design approach. The result was a standout campaign that was brought to life across TV (voiced by acclaimed Bidjara and Maori actor, Deborah Mailman), posters, outdoor, trams, radio digital, social and a number of downloadable shared assets.
The impact
Launching just days after the Federal Election the National Reconciliation Week 2022 campaign felt like exactly the right campaign at exactly the right time. Embraced far and wide, the campaign earned countless dollars in unpaid PR and grew a life of its own, featuring on people’s social timelines, screensavers and email signatures around the country. While the ongoing effect of the campaign on people’s actions is yet to be felt, we remain positive that the fight for reconciliation is stronger than ever.
