RMIT partners with First Nations creative agency

RMIT partners with First Nations creative agency

RMIT's College of Business and Law is working with Little Rocket, a First Nations-owned and operated marketing and creative agency, to bring cultural engagement into the classroom.

Through the partnership with Little Rocket, RMIT is integrating culturally safe best practice into its Master of Marketing curriculum. 

From Semester 1 2026, students will have the opportunity to work with Little Rocket on real-world projects, learning how to develop end-to-end solutions to client briefs and utilise creative marketing techniques to engage First Nations audiences.

As a First Nations business, Little Rocket supports communities and partners who are doing vital work to preserve culture and Country.

The agency has led numerous nation-wide marketing campaigns, collaborating with a diverse range of stakeholders such as Yarra Trams, Melbourne Fringe Festival, and the Reserve Bank of Australia. 

More recently, Little Rocket supported Reconciliation Australia in developing the 2025 National Reconciliation Week theme and campaign, ‘Bridging Now to Next’.

Travis McLellan, Account Director at Little Rocket, said the partnership with RMIT will focus on encouraging students to create more rounded approaches to designing marketing strategies.

“We hope that we can broaden students’ views on key areas around communication and marketing in a modern post-colonial landscape – namely how to effectively harness alternatives in amplifying voices, allyship, and demystification of misnomers and unconscious bias,” McLellan said.

Founder of Little Rocket and proud Gurindji man, John Burgess, said the partnership is an opportunity to expand the impact of the organisation. 

"These sorts of opportunities accelerate the reconciliation process through enabling a peer-to-peer exchange of modern, strategic and creative applications.

“We are looking forward to working with RMIT to benefit students, our team and our First Nations supply chain to create positive outcomes,” Burgess said.

28 October 2025

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The RMIT College of Business and Law team – including Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Picker; Reconciliation Advisor, Henry Purcell; Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Strategy, International and Engagement, Mathews Nkhoma; and Master of Marketing program manager, Daniel Rayne – met with Little Rocket last month to formalise the partnership. 

Rayne said the College is excited to have Little Rocket on board as a program partner.

“As a First Nations-owned and operated marketing agency, they bring invaluable insights that align strongly with the goals of our College and RMIT,” he said.

Industry-connected learning is core to the student experience at RMIT.  

By collaborating with industry, students build key skills that prepare them for a dynamic and evolving workforce and develop connections that can open the door to future opportunities.

In addition to providing students with important learnings on cultural engagement, the partnership will bolster students’ technical capabilities across a range of areas including marketing, communication design, audio-visual content, and event management.

Rayne said Little Rocket’s expertise will inspire students to develop news skills and ways of thinking.

“Little Rocket’s work on innovative, socially driven projects offers our students the opportunity to learn from a high-calibre organisation tackling real social issues through marketing. 

“I’m so excited about the impact this partnership will have on enriching our students’ learning experience,” Rayne said.

Read more about industry engagement in the College of Business and Law.

 

Story: Keely Tzoukos

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28 October 2025

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