Indigenous Pact Rebrand Drives Stronger Voice for Tribal Nations Healthcare
Global design consultancy Elmwood New York has revealed the branding journey behind a powerful new delivery model designed to transform health outcomes for the millions of American Indians and Alaska Natives within America’s 574 federally recognized tribes.
Indigenous Pact – a certified B Corp dedicated to measurably improving the health of Indigenous Peoples in one generation – has launched its Community Care service in collaboration with tribal leaders across the United States.
With the help of partner organisations, the innovative model pairs Indigenous Pact’s existing consultancy with a series of on-demand medical resources. These include tools, technology and the provision of personalised, direct care to native communities routinely underfunded and ignored by the wider healthcare sector.
The team at Elmwood New York worked alongside key figures including Indigenous Pact CEO and co-founder, Kurt Brenkus, to integrate the new model into the heart of the organisation.
“We believe that health is the foundation for building strong communities,” stated Kurt. “Achieving health equity in one generation demands equitable access, experiences, and care. It’s insufficient to simply replicate existing, inadequate systems. Through the establishment of Indigenous Pact Community Care, we are transforming the culture of Tribal healthcare.”
Kurt co-created the company with his wife and Indigenous Pact’s Chairwoman of the Board, Aimee Brenkus, a descendent of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, after experiencing first-hand the failures of Native American healthcare. They became guardians of Aimee’s sister’s children, after their mother died as a direct result of inadequate care. This made them even more determined to leverage the collective perspectives of America’s Tribal Nations in healthcare; a principle that formed part of Elmwood’s broader rebrand effort.
“The fundamental principle of sovereignty has always been vital for Native American communities,” said Meg Beckum, executive creative director at Elmwood. “This design brief was particularly challenging as we aimed to respect that need for independence while simultaneously emphasising the idea of collective power.”
“It’s important to recognize that Tribal Nations are incredibly diverse, representing a wide array of cultural identities. In developing a new brand identity for Indigenous Pact, our goal was to create a unifying theme. This rebrand project sought to highlight the collective strength of Native American voices within a system that has often let these communities down. Additionally, it was designed to reinforce Indigenous Pact's vision of family-centred, holistic, and specialised care, aiming to make this approach accessible to every Tribal Nation and reservation across multiple states.”
American Indian and Alaska Native populations currently have the lowest life expectancy in the United States. Indian Nation adults are almost three times more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with, and die from, diabetes; while women are two times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes. Tribal communities also suffer from a strikingly high prevalence of conditions ranging from obesity and substance abuse to liver and heart disease.
These outcomes are compounded by a long history of endemic barriers affecting the provision of quality healthcare. These include economic adversity, rural isolation, cultural differences and a chronic shortage of medical personnel. Underfunding is also a major issue: even federal prisoners receive two to three times as much healthcare funding compared to the Indian Health Service – the government agency responsible for providing health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
This crisis in health equity can only be overcome via a strong, united platform of Native American healthcare advocacy. “It’s why, early on in our rebrand work, we struck upon the motif of a quilt,” said Meg. “As one of America’s richest indigenous art forms, quiltwork is a traditional form of symbolism in many Tribal Nations. It serves both a practical purpose, and acts as a storytelling device. For the purposes of our design system, it also provided a great way to visualise that metaphor of different Tribal Nations coming together on the mantle of healthcare equity.”
Meg and her team worked closely with Indigenous Pact co-founder and Oneida tribe member, Aimee Brenkus, in order to ensure authenticity in the designs they used. The process relied heavily on co-creation.
“I pointed the Elmwood team to the native star quilt, which is an important part of tribal symbology,” said Aimee. “It’s composed of a number of triangles in purple – a very significant colour for my Oneida community – that come together to form a star. We used this concept to craft a meaningful brand logo for Indigenous Pact that would resonate with our network of tribal leaders. It also powerfully communicates the benefits of our new Community Care model.”
Designers at Elmwood then layered in an additional logo to represent the service model alone, revolving around a red circle in the centre of the star. “You can think of this red circle as the individual surrounded by an expanding circle of support; whether that’s family, doctors or fellow tribe members. Everything flows from the single person in the middle to a wider community founded in values of proactive care and support.
“It’s a creative process that was guided by Aimee and other Indigenous team members,” Meg continued. “In many ways, I had to unlearn the principles of my own, European-biassed, design education and instead immerse myself into learning an entirely new lexicon of cultural symbols, taught to me by the people whose cultural identities depend on them.”
