By Gofaone Motsamai

When Perpetual Umeaku realised that many communities lacked access to health information in a language they could understand, she set out to challenge the status quo and started exploring indigenous languages in health communication.

This focus led her to win the Doctoral Poster Competition at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) 2025 Research and Innovation Week for her study, titled “Examining indigenous language health media potentials for a sustainable future: a multi-stakeholder perspective”.

Her research was selected from 51 poster presentations across doctoral, master’s and honours categories addressing this year’s theme, “Transdisciplinary and transformative research: building sustainable futures”.

The study explores how indigenous language media can bridge communication gaps in health education, empower communities and advance the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Lack of access to quality information is a health risk

Perpetual, a doctoral student at the Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) research niche area on the Mahikeng Campus, says her research is driven by academic gaps and urgent social needs.

“There is less exploration on how indigenous language media can be used to shape health understanding and behaviour. The lack of access to quality and understandable health information among indigenous populations causes vulnerabilities and preventable deaths and hinders the realisation of health-related SDGs.

“Indigenous language media can be used as a sustainable tool to reach and empower indigenous populations and advance the goal of ensuring good health and well-being,” she explains.

While the opportunities are immense, Perpetual identified the difficulty in translating medical terminology into indigenous languages as a major challenge. “The evolving nature of medical terminology in different specialties creates barriers to effective communication. This is why there have been calls for proficient indigenous language experts and linguists to help develop lexicons and reduce the obstacles encountered in conveying health messages through indigenous languages.”

It’s all about trust

She says people are more likely to trust and act on messages delivered in their own languages, especially when these messages use storytelling and local expressions.

Perpetual would like to see policymakers, researchers and health practitioners investing in indigenous language media through funding, training and research.

“This study affirms the central role of indigenous languages in making health communication more inclusive and relatable. I hope it inspires more research in this

area and more policy attention towards harnessing their potential to improve the health and development of people,” she concludes.

Perpetual Umeaku won the Doctoral Poster Competition at the 2025 NWU Research and Innovation Week with her study on the potential of indigenous language media in health communication.