Articles

Qualified interpreters are desperately needed to cope with the needs of deaf people in New Zealand.

The Wellington Association for Deaf Children camp at the Silverstream Retreat at the weekend let families immerse themselves in "deaf culture".

Problems for photographers come in many forms. A prize-winning Christchurch photographer, Dick Poole, had his special worries at the World Games for the Deaf on Saturday. He used several methods to get the look he wanted – a little help from an interpreter, a little push and pull and a few signs.

Deaf children from all parts of New Zealand are gradually overcoming their affliction at St. Dominic's School for the Deaf, situated at Aorangi, near Feilding.

If a New Zealand-born person doesn’t speak good English, people are likely to assume such a person is unintelligent. Such an assumption is wrong when the person is born deaf.

New Zealand's two deaf education centres will become one next year as Kelston Deaf Education Centre and van Asch Deaf Education Centre merge from Term 3, 2020.

A fight has begun against a justice system which some deaf people regard as denying them basic human rights.

New short film 'The Dining Table' is putting emerging Deaf talent from Aotearoa on to film festival screens. Lucy McKenzie-Bridle, 16, a Wellington Girls’ College student, makes her debut in The Dining Table, playing Ana, a Deaf teenager being raised in a hearing family.

People who can hear as well as see 'Reasonable Doubts' (TV3, 9.50pm Saturdays) might be surprised to learn that Deaf New Zealanders can understand deaf lawyer Tessa Kaufman’s sign language little better than they can. ASL, used by Deaf actor Marlee Matlin, is a foreign language here. My Deaf friends give it the thumbs up. But the failure of television in New Zealand to provide anything in NZSL is described as “a running sore” by Hilary McCormack.

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 offical language - NZSL.

Growing up in Feilding Della Roache used to like going to the pub to pick up her dad. Now she's the bar manager at the Himatangi Beach Cosmopolitan Club. And she's deaf.

'Wellington' and 'All Black' are just two of hundreds of familiar Kiwi terms – such as Milo, Weetbix, pakeha, Maori and marae – described in A Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language to ve released next week.

The producer of News Review explains the innovations and experimentations they have made in creating the programme, specially designed for the hard of hearing.

Wellington actor Miranda Harcourt who plays Sarah in Children of a Lesser God, understands her character's sentiments. She spent eight months learning sign language before the play opened at Dunedin's Fourtune Theatre in October.

The 1989 "friendly games" are underway. That is the unoffical title given to the Games for the Deaf which the Minister of Health, Mr Caygill, officially opened on Saturday.

Last year on Queen’s Birthday weekend, Hamilton man Hemi Hema was honoured for his tireless work advocating for opportunities for Māori Deaf. This Queen’s Birthday weekend he was showing that his great work continues – facilitating a hui for Māori Deaf from throughout Aotearoa aimed at focusing on new beginnings for their community.

For the first time since they met, Pam and Kaz Witko can talk to each other on the telephone… well, it’s not really talking it’s more like writing letters, only a lot faster.

Whakatane teacher Ruth Gerzon looks at some of the problems facing the deaf, in particular the controversy on how they should be taught.

A revolutionary device which opens up a whole new world for those born deaf is now being demonstrated in Wellington. New Zealand is the only second country in the world to adopt the system so far.

Television New Zealand has begun experimental transmission aimed at introducing a new service which will improve viewing enjoyment for the hard of hearing. Called Teletext, it is intended for daily transmission by next year.

Married recently at St Patrick’s Church, Paraparaumu were Kaz and Pam Witko, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Howell. The couple will live in Perth.

New Zealand's first gold medal was won yesterday by a Fielding cyclist, John Ooteman. Aged 28, Ooteman won the 35km time trial event on the Old West Coast Road ahead of 23 other competitors with a time of 51 min 12.13s.

Profoundly deaf people, particularly those deaf from birth of an early age, have needs which are not being met by the existing psychiatric services and institutions, says Pat Dugdale, Field Officer for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

The show, from Manawatu Deaf Drama Group Madedra, is at the Globe Theatre on Friday and Saturday. It's an imaginative work created by the seven deaf actors in the group. Settings, props, costumes and make-up are all the work of other members of Madedra. 'City, Country and Sheep' will show the deaf actors' skills.

The New Zealand Deaf Sports Association demonstrated in Wellington at the weekend – at its 33rd annual games – how well it would use the Government funds it is hoping for so the association can hire its own interpreters.

One of the crowd favourites at the sixteenth World Games for the Deaf has been the blind and deaf wrestler from Canada, Pier Morten. Although being disadvantaged by not being able to see his opponents, Morten fights tenaciously and reacts speedily to holds applied on him.

Jenny Griffiths, the mother of two profoundly deaf children, talks about communicating with them in Total Communication.

A trip to the United States in 1990 gave Whangārei man Kim Robinson extra motivation to seek better and equal access for the deaf community in New Zealand. Now, that commitment to ensuring deaf people are heard and their needs met has seen him made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the deaf community in the New Year's Honours List.

The documentary 'The Remand of Ivan Curry (One, Sunday 9.35) was the story of how a man could spend two years in a New Zealand prison without trial. A deaf man arrested for a murder he did not commit who was kept in jail through lack of police investigation then turned back onto the streets with nothing, not even an apology.

The Auckland indoor bowls team which beat Northland for the 'Ranfurly Shield of indoor bowls'.