Recruiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants for a new study
What we made, and who we collaborated with.
Video and Media partners the broader team from Teaching and Learning Innovation to collaborate with the Melbourne Medical School's FlashGM team, Brown Dog productions and external partners from the Australian Government, National Health and Medical Research Council.
Together, the teams created an engaging and informative video resource for research participants.
Facilitating culturally-informed collaboration
The Indigenous-led FlashGM (Flash glucose monitoring) research team approached Teaching and Learning Innovation to create an engaging resource to help inform potential research participants about the requirements and implications of the study they were undertaking.
Centring the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was key to the project and underscored every choice.
Our award-winning screenwriters worked alongside the research team to create a concise and informative script, voiced by Tracey Hearn, a Yorta Yorta woman and member of the research team.
We sought out Gumbaynggir man and artist, Bernard Kelly-Edwards, to create the illustrations for the project in collaboration with animators at Brown Dog productions. Bernard explains that he was inspired by river rocks from his Country in the creation of the images.
"There’s a place up here called the Promised Land and it’s quite a tranquil place that’s very beautiful and pristine. And pretty much it’s got a still lovely clear fresh water and when you’re up in that place you get a sense of a timelessness, an experience.
There’s all these beautiful rocks and ... the rocks for me became really really important because they’re kind of like the blood flow of the river system. Even though they’re not in movement, what they do is hold the channel together for the blood to flow."
- Bernard Kelly-Edwards
Impact: Informed decision making for potential participants
Through the collaboration with the FlashGM research team and animators, we created a final result where the script and animated visuals work together seamlessly to achieve the project’s purpose.
The voice-over and stunning animated visuals go hand-in-hand to communicate information about the study, which was on track to recruit 100 participants by December, 2022. This group was ethically engaged from around Australia for this Melbourne Medical School study funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council—contributing to more comprehensive understandings of the best ways to support First Nations people with diabetes.
This project was produced by Video and Media. Supporting excellence in teaching and research at the University of Melbourne.
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