One organisation looking to change this is Indigenous Pact, a certified B Corp that has set itself the ambitious task of transforming the health of Indigenous Americans and Alaska Natives in one generation. Indigenous Pact provides vital consulting services to tribes, helping them to identify, implement, and maintain custom healthcare solutions that benefit each unique tribal community.

Elmwood was tasked with creating a new visual identity for Indigenous Pact as the organisation launched its Community Care service, which pairs its existing consultancy with a series of on-demand medical resources. In completing the brief, the design team needed to respect the sovereignty of the indigenous tribes and bring them together to help them use their collective power as leverage for better healthcare.

The result, created in collaboration with tribal leaders from across the country, uses one of America’s richest indigenous artforms to drive change.

Indigenous Pact emerged from first-hand experience of the failures of Native American healthcare. The organisation was founded by husband and wife, Kurt and Aimee Brenkus, the latter being a descendent of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.

Kurt and Aimee became guardians of Aimee’s sister’s children after a family tragedy. This made Aimee and Kurt determined to bring about change by using the collective strength of America’s Tribal Nations. This, in turn, guided Elmwood’s branding.

“Individual tribal sovereignty – the rights of self-determination and self-government – has been the underlying political motivation for Indigenous People in this country, and they’ve fought for it for hundreds of years,” explains Emma Godfrey, MD of Elmwood New York. “Coming together in solidarity might seem counter to that, but the organisation’s founders knew that indigenous tribes had to fight together in order to get better healthcare.”

Collective power speaks to the shared healthcare struggle that affects indigenous eople. American Indian and Alaska Native populations still face a significant life expectancy gap compared to white Americans. Diabetes is nearly three times more likely to affect Indian Nation adults than non-Hispanic white adults. Meanwhile, indigenous women are two times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes.

These issues are compounded by economic adversity, rural isolation, cultural differences, and a chronic shortage of medical personnel. To visualise the Tribal Nations coming together to tackle these problems, the team, led by designers Meg Beckum and Elyanna Blaser, settled on the indigenous artform of quiltwork.

“The team leveraged quiltwork for a number of important reasons,” says Godfrey. “Quilts are an example of traditional, indigenous craft. We were also trying to think of how to visualise different Tribal Nations coming together, and a quilt works perfectly as a storytelling device.”

Indeed, quiltwork has long had both a practical and narrative purpose when it comes to tribal symbology. In the case of Indigenous Pact’s branding, the purple triangles coming together to form a star are used to visualise the metaphor of Tribal Nations converging on the mantle of healthcare equity.

Elmwood also wanted to ensure the organisation’s visual identity captured the indigenous roots of its co-founder, Aimee Brenkus. “It was Aimee who pointed us to the native star quilt,” says Godfrey. “The native star quilt is a strong example of pan-tribal symbology and a traditional way to honor people. It’s also where the purple star logo for Indigenous Pact came from, as purple is the colour of the Oneida Tribe.”

An additional logo for the Community Care service was also modelled. This one is made up of a red circle in the centre of the star, which represents an individual surrounded by an expanding community founded in values of care and support.

Given the cultural sensitivities at play, Elmwood purposefully allowed the design process to be led by Tribal leaders. It was a creative process that surprised and enlightened Elmwood’s designers.

“For Elmwood, it was a very exciting experience,” says Godfrey. “It made us realise how much the design industry is rooted in European symbols and attitudes. Indigenous symbols can have very different meanings compared to how we would typically understand them. We had to culturally immerse ourselves in the community while embodying a spirit of empathy-led imagination.”

This approach was crucial for crafting messages that would resonate authentically and give a voice to Indigenous People, no matter what tribe they come from. Everything from the logo to the wider brand world experience talks to the collective strength of Tribal Nations and the individuals at the heart of every community.

As Godfrey puts it, the brand is ultimately a reminder that: “You’re always embraced by a community. Whether it’s your family, doctors, or your tribe. Everything expands from there.”