The room is full of waving hands and exaggerated facial gestures.
Even though the room is silent the dozen women are “talking” with each other just as volubly as if they were having a chinwag.
It is a women’s only class in New Zealand’s latest official language — New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).
All but one of the women can hear but they’ve come to the Upper Hutt Women’s Centre because they want to learn how to communicate with deaf people using sign language.
Tutor Karen Pointon speaks only when necessary.
“I was born deaf,” says Ms Pointon, a lecturer in deaf studies at Victoria University.
“My mother had rubella. In my early years, my language development was stunted because I couldn’t hear.”
What she was at a deaf school, sign language wasn’t permitted and children were taught to lip-read and speak.
“I quickly learned to lip-read, but teaching us to speak was more difficult, and I never learned to speak very well.”
“I became a tutor to raise awareness of what sign language means to the deaf.”
The women in Ms Pointon’s class comes for different reasons. Kate Ellicott, Pointon’s first NZSL student, has been learning for six years.
She had a deaf friend in the United States who had taught her “Ameslan” — American Sign Language, and she is now “passionate” about NZSL.
Gail Cull, who works for the Hutt Valley District Health Board’s occupational therapy unit, says sign language will be useful in her job.
“I found communication with deaf clients hard”, but it would be better now.
The women agreed it was easier to learn in a women’s only class.
The centre had been running classes for women for two years and has had enquiries from men wanting to join. Ms Pointon says there is a need for more male sign language interpreters so deaf people would have “gender choice”.
Last month, New Zealand Sign Language became the country’s third official language, after English and Māori. The law gives equal rights to the deaf, allowing interpreters in court and access to sign language in education, health, employment and public broadcasting.
Ms Pointon says deaf people have lobbied for more than 100 years to have NZSL recognised officially. She says the Act will provide status for the deaf community but more resources are needed to make sure deaf people are not disadvantaged.
About 28,000 people in New Zealand use NZSL and 7000 are deaf.
According to a government release that accompanied the NZSL Act, deaf should spelled with a capital D.
“The capital D is used to denote a distinct cultural group of people who are deaf, use NZSL as their first or preferred language and identify with the deaf community and deaf culture,” says Ms Pointon
“Deaf culture, like all cultures, incorporates a rich body of distinct deaf customs, mannerisms, art, humour and history.”
Her passion is to raise awareness of deaf people and deaf culture.
“My goal is a real understanding. Some people think sign language is not a ‘real’ language of the deaf community. I try to teach them it is.”
Photo Caption – TALKING HANDS — Karen Pointon, a deaf teacher of New Zealand Sign Language, now an official language, shows students how to form symbolic gestures.
