Campfire X to create educational Voice campaign for First Nations Media
First Nations Media has appointed Indigenous Australian-led creative consultancy, Campfire X, to develop a campaign to educate Indigenous groups on process of the upcoming Voice Referendum.
The project is aimed at empowering First Nations Australians with the facts about the Voice proposal, including how the Voice body would be selected, how it would operate within the structures of government, as well as the process of the Referendum. 
The campaign will not represent either the Yes or No camp but will focus on empowering First Nations Australians to make their own informed decision.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Campfire X co-founder, Peter Kirk, said: “Being given this responsibility by First Nations Media is such a humbling honour. The opportunity to develop a campaign to educate Indigenous Australians from all backgrounds on the facts and process regarding the “Voice” is a great opportunity and we take that very seriously. We are excited to tap into our creativity to develop something that speaks to everyone.”
It comes after the Uluru Dialogue Group appointed Accenture Song’s The Monkeys to lead creative on the Uluru Statement campaign, History is Calling, which pitched the case for constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples to the Australian Public, in one of the first major campaign efforts for the Yes vote in the Referendum.
However, the campaign receieved criticism due to the absence of Indigenous talent at The Monkeys, and an alleged lack of First Nations creative consultation in the campaign development.
Speaking to Crikey’s Julia Bergin in February, creative director of Cairns Indigenous agency, Ingeous Studios, said the campaign failed to address the issue of low electoral enrollment for First Nations community.
“You’ve got this big thing at the moment but they should have been running the campaign long ago to get black fellas to enrol to vote,” Harris said. “As an Aboriginal man, I’m a bit bewildered by all of it.”
CEO of First Nations Media Australia, Shane Hearn, also told Bergin: “To my knowledge, none of us saw a brief, none of us were invited, it didn’t go through a formal process. Why not? We as a collection of professionals have lots to offer the creative industry.”
Campfire X’s appointment now comes as the national debate on The Voice to Parliament heats up, with opposition leader Peter Dutton recently positioning his party in support of a No vote.
Last week the ACA became one of few industry bodies to publicly indicate it would be supporting a Yes vote, with many organisations and businesses reluctant to take a stance in the contentious issue, though citing efforts to educate and inform their stakeholders.
After committing to the Yes campaign publicly last year, Dentsu this morning launched a guide to The Voice referendum for Australian businesses, with agency executives asking the industry to take up “a once in a generation chance to right a historic wrong”.
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