Client: American Indian College Fund
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Art Director: Brad Trost
Copywriter: Robin Maxkii

Move Aside is a national campaign created for the American Indian College Fund to spotlight Indigenous college graduates and challenge outdated narratives about Native presence, intelligence, and potential. The campaign centers on a short film featuring a young Indigenous woman preparing for work. Her voiceover, styled like a professional cover letter, reclaims a familiar format to deliver a powerful message: her qualifications don’t begin with a degree—they begin with 20,000 years of knowledge, tradition, and strength.

The line “20,000 years of experience” is a direct nod to Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, also referred to as Indigenous Knowledge (IK) or Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). These systems, passed down through generations, contain sophisticated understandings of science, sustainability, and community well-being. While often dismissed by Western standards, this knowledge is vital—both culturally and ecologically—and represents leadership that predates modern institutions.

The campaign ran nationally online and across social platforms, with high-impact placement among college access and equity-focused audiences. Its goal was twofold: to elevate Native graduates as leaders and innovators, and to call on allies to #MoveAside—not as an act of erasure, but as an invitation to make space for Indigenous excellence.

Learn more at www.standwith.collegefund.org
#MoveAside #AmericanIndianCollegeFund #Indigenous #CollegeFund