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

The deaf community believes it has been misunderstood and misinterpreted for too long. Now it wants to be seen and heard as a group with its own cultural identity.

When Manawatu Deaf Society members meet at their clubrooms in Awapuni, they huddle deep in coats and scarves and gloves. Their 22-year-old hall is icebox cold in winter, and members say the difficulty and expense of heating it keeps older society members at home, away from enjoying the society's sociability and events.

Madedra, the Manawatu Deaf Drama Group, is putting on a show 'People' which plays at the National Library next Sunday. They have also been invited to perform in the International Festival of Deaf Theatre in Spain but still needed to raise enough money.

A television documentary on the plight of a deaf man has spurred the Glen Eden-based New Zealand Association of the Deaf into action. It wants to see the man, wrongly imprisoned for two years, receive compensation for his ordeal.

A visit by a group of Southland students to a marae has highlighted the challenges faced by deaf Māori who want to connect with their culture.