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Our Medicine Path
- Engaging with Indigenous communities about COVID-19 vaccines.

With Creative Fire, an Indigenous-owned consulting agency, and Vincent Design, an Indigenous-led creative marketing company, we worked together to better understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy drivers in Indigenous communities.

Cause

Vaccine hesitancy

Locations

Canada

Status

Online

Content

The Product

Our Medicine Path is an online engagement platform for learning, sharing, and understanding Indigenous perspectives and experiences with the COVID-19 vaccine and its rollout in Canada.

Users can access the tool by visiting a web address on their phone, tablet, or computer. They will explore misinformation narratives and drivers of vaccine hesitancy within Indigenous communities, as told through Indigenous voices. The game adopts a storytelling approach through which users receive helpful information about COVID-19 and vaccines from trusted Indigenous sources and are encouraged to share their own views and experiences.

The four game modules are displayed sibe-by-side, each with its own associated illustration. The first module shows a woman named Desiree with her two young children, and the title reads: "Let's talk about concerns surrounding the healthcare system". The second, shows a middle aged man named Dr. Ted Grant with the title “Lets talk about the COVID-19 vaccine and the booster shot”. The third shows an elder named Raymond, with a title that reads “Let’s talk about government decisions around the COVID-19 vaccine boosters”. Finally, an older woman named Elsie is displayed alongside the title “Let’s talk about the pressure to get vaccinated”.

Organizations, community groups, and other health champions who distribute the tool through their communications channels will have access to aggregate, non-identifiable insights about their audience, from gameplay data. Our hope is that these insights can be leveraged by community organizations in a way that informs their own health promotion activities, health service design, or other activities, as well as support prospective grant applications.

Our Rationale

COVID-19 has had a disproportionately negative impact on Indigenous communities in Canada. There is inconsistent access to equity-based data that can inform effective solutions, and national health communications have traditionally not been tailored to the priorities of Indigenous community members. In partnership with Creative Fire and Vincent Design, in-depth interviews were conducted with Indigenous health care providers and community leaders to better-understand the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and design a digital tool that addressed the health information needs of Indigenous audiences, with visual representation of the culture through the depiction of people, animals, and nature.

Colourfully illustrated game icons that represent the collectable items throughout the ‘Our Medicine Basket’ experience: fish, sweet grass, sage, squash, berries, cedar, and tobacco.

While one tool cannot address the diversity and complexity between and within Indigenous communities, we hope this tool is a first step in the right direction towards listening, learning, and co-producing.

The Genesis

Our Medicine Path was co-created by Vincent Design, an Indigenous-led creative marketing company specializing in culturally relevant and respectful Indigenous design, with content guidance and input from Creative Fire, an Indigenous-owned communications and consulting firm. This project was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada as part of their effort to address harmful vaccine misinformation narratives online.

Data Insights

We do not collect personally identifiable information (PII) on this website without a user’s consent. This means users are free to remain de-identified when they are learning with us on this platform. We do ask for opt-in demographics data to help us understand whether we're reaching our intended audience.

This project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The aggregate data summaries and learnings from this platform will be shared with the funder and other interested health organizations to inform future health services.

A screenshot of the demographics prompt page, which includes an illustrated image of a diverse group of indigenous people standing together. Below them the text reads “Before you go, would you be willing to tell us a bit about you? All the information we collect here is anonymous”. The buttons “I’ll share more about me”, and “Not right now” fall below the text.

Our Medicine Path seeks to engage with Indigenous folks to reflect on attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines, their safety, how they were distributed, and the discourse around their use. Some of the key insights we can aim to draw are:

  • Total number of users engaging with the tool
  • Likelihood of sharing information with their networks
  • Vaccination status/ intent to vaccinate
  • Attitudes about drivers of vaccine hesitancy
  • Feedback about COVID vaccines
  • Opt-in demographics (age, gender, equity deserving groups)

Get in touch!

If you anticipate this tool could benefit your community, and wish to learn more about how we can provide you with aggregate data insights for your specific audience, get in touch with us at bonjour@digitalpublicsquare.org or effie@digitalpublicsquare.org.

Digital Public Square would like to thank the Public Health Agency of Canada for their continued support in this work.

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