Kāwhia Marae COVID-19 Vaccination Poster Campaign hits the streets of Aotearoa

Waikato Tainui has approved funding to take the Kāwhia Marae COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign nationwide. Initially billed for the unvaxxed in Kāwhia,  Waikato Tainui, Acting Chief Executive, Marae Tukere confirmed the funding decision last week.

“Our GM who looks after our Distributions, Glenda Taituha and myself went over your funding application yesterday and it’s stunning, well done.  We are very pleased to be able to support your campaign in full,” Marae affirmed.

Trust chair, Cath Holland.

“We are extremely grateful to Marae and her senior executive and the board of Waikato Tainui for funding our Kāwhia Covid Vaccination Campaign.  This will allow us to bring the vaccination messages out of Kāwhia to the streets of Hamilton and southwards in order to keep abreast of the COVID outbreak as it spreads down the country.”

Cath says we were very fortunate to have a team of professionals on hand to bring the posters alive.

“We contracted one of our professional Waikato photographers Mark Hamilton to snap the photogenic blend of our poster duo, John Forbes and Maea Marshall who lived their entire lives with polio related disabilities because vaccinations weren't on tap when they were kids.  With Mark's intuition and experience behind the camera, he captured the mana and pride of the two adult siblings when they were given the chance to get vaxxed to protect their whānau. 

Then Joanne Hair and Andrew Newth (creative directors of design and communications agency DuoDesign), created a compelling poster series aimed at stopping people in the street.  Their artwork was perfectly tailored for this health campaign. Bold red and white on text over Mark's imagery evocatively conveys the vaccination messages with a potent mix of the dangers of a viral killer and the safety and protection enabled by becoming fully vaccinated.

DuoDesign then crafted a nationwide media and creative plan that is now being implemented across the country. PHANTOM BILLSTICKERS will take our posters into the streets and install them throughout both urban centres and small towns throughout Aotearoa before Christmas.  

Cath highlights the spirit of this campaign has been overwhelmed with generosity.  All of our marketing companies have given the campaign huge discounts because they believe in the kaupapa and the power of our campaign messaging. 

“LUMO will present our messaging through their network of illuminated billboards; 1 site in Hamilton,  1 site in Tauranga and 5 sites in Wellington estimated to achieve a total of 5 million-plus exposures over the inital 6 week campaignb period.  GO MEDIA, a 50% owned Māori business have embraced our messaging and will give us access to illuminated billboards in 8 cities and towns with 1.25 million exposures.  Finally, MEDIAWORKS will have posters on the back of 10 Hamilton Buses for 8 weeks this summer.

This is of huge significance Cath says for our 8 marae in Kāwhia who joined forces to launch this campaign based on our history with previous epidemics. 

“The objective was to remind us all that our people have experienced fatal epidemics before, at a time when there wasn’t a vaccine for polio and many of our local kids from Kāwhia died from not having the choice to be vaccinated against a virus that eventually killed them. And so it was for the 1918 flu epidemic.  This isn’t a new phenomenon for Kāwhia Moana.  What’s different here is the unvaxxed have a choice today to get vaccinated and give themselves a layer of protection to help protect their whānau and moko.  Our polio kids didn’t have that choice nor did our people who lost their lives from the flu epidemic.” 

Cath points out, polio caused huge disabilities for many like our poster brother-sister duo, John Forbes and Maea Marshall who have lived with disability all their lives. 

“We have been very fortunate to have our cousin's front foot this kaupapa as the faces of our poster campaign to tell their debilitating story and engage the unvaxxed to rethink the choices they have in front of them because Covid kills.”

Cath says, what’s significant about Waikato Tainui’s COVID funding decision is that it allows the 8 marae to reach the majority of our people who live across Aotearoa with a message that we hope resonates with the unvaxxed, nationwide. 

“This isn’t just about Kāwhia moana, this is about a nation, the Team of 5 million.  When the chips are down, we pull together.  This ‘mate’, this life-threatening virus, doesn’t care what tribe you come from or what marae you affiliate to.  If you’re not vaxxed it’s going to nail those who have no level of protection from the virus.  This is highly relevant for our people because we’ve already experienced this with polio.  The other issue is, most of our people live away from Kāwhia but nonetheless vulnerable.  Now, we have the opportunity for our messages to reach them as well as the nation.”  

Cath says in times of a crisis like this, we fall back on what we know. 

“A traditional alliance has been forged again to illustrate leadership for those of our people who are most vulnerable.  Our 8 marae led our vaccination strategy around the Kāwhia harbour, our marae food bank was set up after COVID hit Aotearoa to ensure none of our people went without kai during this pandemic and our 8 marae endorsed our poster campaign to engage the unvaxxed to go get the jab.” 

Cath says the campaign will reach thousands of Kiwis at what is normally the busiest time of the year, albeit under the government’s Traffic Lights system. 

“The timing, the gestures of aroha and the support of Waikato Tainui has been so befitting of the Christmas sentiment.  Our Christmas wish is that this all translates into people getting vaxxed to save lives, getting vaxxed to protect whānau and getting vaxxed to stay healthy. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas everyone from Ngā Marae o Kāwhia Moana."