A group of high school students from Queanbeyan, near Canberra, have become the stars of a new TV commercial aimed at reducing smoking in young people.
The group behind the advertisement says if young Indigenous people smoke, they are not properly caring for themselves as individuals. So the narrative makes the case they should quit for something that they care about: country.
It opens with a powerful message:
"When smoking makes you sick, country is sick."
The commercial was developed by Indigenous advocacy group Butt Out Boondah, which is trying to reduce smoking and vaping rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth living in the Queanbeyan, Yass, Cooma and Goulburn regions.
In 2019, Butt Out Boondah reported Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples accounted for 26.4 per cent of people who smoked tobacco in Australia, a figure the group hopes will drop.
The group's Justine Brown said people were taking up smoking at a younger age, with vaping being the "number-one option for younger generations".
Ms Brown said inviting high school students to take part in the commercial was empowering.
"It's always important to have our next generation take the lead on these projects because they will be the ones out in the community in the next five to 10 years relaying these messages," she said.
Students first took part in lessons to learn about the negative health effects of smoking and vaping.
"We got to see the difference between smoking cigarettes, smoking e-cigarettes, and then what kind of quality of life you're actually going to have," Ms Brown said.
"[It] was definitely a big insight into what smoking can do, and what second-hand smoking can do to the people around you," student Damon Laws said.
The children were taught an ancient dance called Bogong dance for the commercial.
They travelled to Gibraltar Falls earlier this year to film the performance.
"Over the years, the Bogong moth has diminished, and we wanted to honour it," Ms Brown said.
"[Gibraltar Falls is] where Ngunnawal people would bring our visitors and we would go through a cleansing ceremony, so you see a mixture of the Bogong ceremony and the cleansing ceremony."
Connecting with country is the central theme of the piece, so it was fitting for the commercial to be filmed in an important location.
"When we look after country, country in turn is going to look after us and so making sure that ourselves mentally, physically, our country is going to look after us tenfold," Ms Brown said.
"To see our next generation of community leaders step up and show up and stand up and deliver this piece, it makes me extremely proud."
"A big component of the advertisement was knowing and realising and understanding that I can connect with my culture whilst not being on the land of my tribe," student Kuyan Bell said.
"It was eye-opening I think, we didn't really know what it would turn into. I think it became so much more than what we expected."
Another student, Amaya Vaevaemaki, said helping make the commercial was "rewarding" and sent "a good message to all the young people who may be smoking or may not be".
"When we watch it, it has an impact on myself," she said.
"I'm hoping that by others watching it, it will impact them and their decisions in the future."
The commercial will air in September.
