Art of surviving in silence

On World Deaf Awareness Day, and the start of New Zealand’s National Deaf Awareness Week, PENELOPE CARROLL learns something about the profoundly deaf’s sense of isolation.

Being deaf really does set you apart, says 23-year-old art student Abbie Twiss, one of 8000 profoundly deaf New Zealanders (410,000 are hearing-impaired).

“I try my best to get involved in a range of interests and I see a lot of deaf mates at the weekend,” she said.

But after nearly four years at Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts, there is still no easy rapport with fellow students. She is the only deaf one among them, and perhaps that makes them feel uncomfortable.

“I have never gone out with them to cafes like other university students. We talk with pen and paper.”

Twiss got used to this as a child. “My hearing friends couldn’t do sign language so they wrote to me; and it’s stuck.”

The frustration with writing everything down is the time it takes.

“I can say everything I want to and it’s no problem to understand. But my thoughts go much faster than I can write.

“It’s rather a disadvantage that I can’t lip read that well, but I adapt by using pen and paper.”

It is also a disadvantage that more hearing people do not learn to sign. Twiss is resigned to it: people are too busy, she said.

“But the Elam staff are great people. They are used to communicating with more than speech, they understand there are ways than speech to show what you are thinking.”

So does her family – parents Greer and Dee Twiss and brothers Jacob and Toby. With family and deaf friends she uses a combination of Signed English, New Zealand Sign Language and other gestures to communicate.

Abbie Twiss is one of only a handful of deaf people who go on to tertiary studies. Deaf students need interpreters and note-takers to be able to take part in lectures and tutorials, and there are few available – only 20 in the Auckland region.

New courses have been set up at Auckland Institute of Technology and Victoria University to train interpreters.

But, as always, lack of resources curtails opportunities, said Greer Twiss.

“Deaf children don’t have the same access to an education as everybody else.”

It was difficult for them to move beyond a secondary education in New Zealand, he says, whereas in Washington a whole university is devoted to the deaf.

Abbie Twiss had the help of interpreters and note-takers through her secondary education at Kelston Girls, and until last year, at Auckland University.

“My last interpreters and note-takers during 1994 to halfway through 1996, were Esther Tavui and Sue Frewin. They were good friends and supportive.”

Twiss missed them at the beginning of a recent examination.

“Nobody had warned the examination supervisors that there was a deaf student sitting in the exam. I looked up to find three red-in-the-face supervisors shouting at me because I was writing at a time I should only have been reading. I felt terrible.”

Now in her final studio year, she is working on large paintings based on Kiwiana, reviving and reworking brand names and icons in a pop art style.

Buzzy Bee has swapped red, yellow, blue and black for varying shades of green, to draw attention to concerns about pollution.

Twiss’ fascination with comics has produced Superman, Batman and Robin sporting silver ferns. Her Wonder Woman has a moko.

At the end of her studies she wants to continue painting and to work with deaf people in art. She plans to train as an art teacher.

The theme of this year’s Deaf Awareness Week is fairness of educational access for all those who are deaf or hearing-impaired.

There is no fairness at the moment, says Bill Barclay, chief executive officer of the National Foundation For the Deaf. New Zealand lacks the services and facilities widely available in countries with a similar standard of living.

“The deaf and hearing-impaired are normally intelligent people who must be given the same opportunities as every other member of society.”

Photo caption: SOUNDLESS SPRING: Abbie Twiss looks out from her Elam studio. “My thoughts go much faster than I can write.”