Sync Watch: Baker Boy fronts call to address vaccine hesitancy in Indigenous communities

Baker Boy is part of a Department of Health campaign aimed at getting more people within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities vaccinated.

The campaign is backed by Baker Boy’s track ‘Marryuna’ which features Yirrmal, and also features prominent didgeridoo player William Barton, chef Nornie Bero, model Samantha Harris, artist Tori-Jay Mordey, and Paralympian Amanda Reid.

The campaign ends with the message: “For our past. For our future. For all of us” – a sentiment echoed by Baker Boy.

“I’m a proud Yolngu boy, and in Yolngu Matha, Marryuna means dancing. Dancing and music brings us all together and nothing makes me happier than performing and hitting the road to share music with community,” he said.

“I’m passionate about protecting my mobs’ culture, dance and music. But none of that matters unless we protect and safeguard our future, and we can only do that by having a yarn to our health care workers about getting the COVID-19 jab.”

The campaign was created by Carbon Creative. The agency’s managing director, Birri Gubba man Wayne Denning, said fear or lecturing won’t change vaccine hesitancy for this audience.

“So instead, we looked to inspire and remind all First Nations people what we know to be true – we have 60,000 years of history, culture, art, song, dance and language to be proud of and worth protecting.”

The campaign will run on the Department of Health’s social channels and website.

Baker Boy also recently featured in a Menulog campaign, giving a local twist to Snoop Dogg’s ‘Did Somebody Say Menulog?’ jingle.