SignDNA is the home of Aotearoa New Zealand’s visual Deaf history.

A look at St Dominic’s School for the Deaf twenty-one years after its opening at Dover Street, to its relocation to Feilding. ‘Twenty-One Years’ features speech therapy, classroom activities and ballet, swimming and sewing lessons, as well as its infamous Gala Day and a Mass in its Chapel.

Not long after opening Co-Ed Cafe and the associated training school, Claire Matheson began running courses for students of Newlands College Deaf Unit. NZSL is now used in meetings and training, and they have menus in sign language.

Black and white footage of a group of Christchurch Deaf men with their bicycles chatting to the camera excitedly before riding on the road, and signing at the same time!

Edited crowd-shot footage of the men’s basketball heat at the World Games for the Deaf 1989, between New Zealand and Sweden. Sweden won the match 126-61.

A documentary outlining the case of Ivan Curry who, in 1988, was arrested and tried for the murder of his baby nephew. The documentary explores the case and in particular the plight of Ivan Curry who was remanded without bail for 15 months awaiting trial, as well as the difficulty Deaf people face navigating the justice system.