Articles

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.

The Government would have to consider regulations covering climbing if the mountaineering community makes an issue out of his action in evacuating seven Japanese climbers from Mt Cook, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, indicated today.

The first time Monica Leach took part in the Oxfam Trailerwalker was with a group of hearing friends. Leach, who is Deaf and uses NZSL, found it difficult to communicate with the team. But last weekend, her team Deaf Power Walk completed it in Taranaki as an all-Deaf team.

Van Asch College, as it will now be known, is no longer a school exclusively for the deaf.

Lack of access to interpreters means deaf children are missing out on education. There are about 3600 children in the deaf education system, of which about 96 per cent attend mainstream schools. There are just three NZSL educational interpreters working full time with students, meaning most children were missing out.

Three first-year pupils and three sets of twins numbered among the 250 or so former pupils, teachers, family and friends who attended the St Dominics School for the Deaf 50th jubilee over Anzac Weekend.

The Wellington Association for Deaf Children writes to the editor covering Total Communication, the difficulties in the school system, the need for an interpreting training programme, and the need for deaf people to make their own decisions.

In the past 18 months, the NZAD has opened field offices in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, and hopes soon to establish two more in Nelson and Dunedin.

The New Lynn Lions Club has scored a first. The club is the first in the country to sponsor deaf youths on an exchange overseas. It is sending Sally Robertson (19) and Lyndon Malcolm (19), both of Titirangi, to Oregon for about eight weeks.

A Christchurch man has designed an international first for the World Games for the Deaf, designing a visual starter for athletic and swimming events.

They are all members of Palmerston North-based Madedra (Manawatu Deaf Drama Group). Chilean-born drama tutor, Rolmedo Olmedo reckons he has found in them some of the best mime actors he has ever worked with. "They are so natural," he says.

The price in being part of the 600-strong Commonwealth Games opening ceremony choir as they use sign language to sing is evident.

Rachel Noble and Donna Allen, both 17 and profoundly deaf, talk about their experiences in education.

Mojo Mathers' rise to Parliament has been labelled a success not just for the Green Party, but also for the New Zealand deaf community.

Māori concepts like tikanga, iwi and kaumātua don't exist in English-based sign language. And it means deaf Māori have been deprived of their culture, Hamilton-based interpreter Stephanie Awheto said. But that's changing, albeit slowly.

One of the New Zealand Association for the Deaf’s priorities is to get interpreters for the profoundly deaf. This was the message in a speech from Mrs Pat Dugdale.

A Northland advocate is behind a campaign to get deaf-friendly fire alarms installed in public buildings, after a deaf university student was left behind during a drill. Whangarei's Kim Robinson, chairman of Deaf Action New Zealand, is driving the petition to make visual fire alarms - similar to what many deaf people have in their homes - mandatory in public buildings.

Almost one hundred Australian athletes will compete in the trans-tasman deaf games to be held in Wellington this weekend.

Candice David was only 3 when she lost her hearing. Now, she's helping others learn her only form of communication, NZSL. Candice was at Palmerston North bar Brew Union on Sunday, offering free NZSL tutorials to all patrons.

Kevin Stokes wishes more people spoke his language. He would also like to see it recognised, as New Zealand's third official language, alng with English and Maori.

Struggles in her own schooling as she grew up made profoundly deaf Auckland woman Sarah Cameron want to be a teacher. Her ambition came true yesterday when she became the first deaf person to graduate with a mainstream secondary teacher's diploma.

Applications are invited for the first New Zealand course of interpreter training.

Imagine a packed stadium and not one of the 10,000 spectators’ voices heard by the athletes competing. That was the scenario painted by deaf table tennis and basketball player Kaz Witko who travelled with the New Zealand team to the international deaf sports convention in West Germany last year.

Olympic wrestling nominee Robert Algie is battling cancer in Palmerston North Hospital.

A history of St Dominic's School for the Deaf was launched in March in Feilding and Auckland. 'We See What You Mean' has been the culmination of many years' work by author Dorothy Pilkington and the school's History Society Committee.

Sixteen Wellingtonians are part of the 97 strong New Zealand team to compete in the 16th World Games for the Deaf in Christchurch. Local members of the team and the sport they are competing in are listed.

A magnificent success is how organisers described the World Deaf Games in Christchurch. The 112-member New Zealand team – the biggest yet – won seven medals.

An interpreter passes on the Pope's message to the deaf during the outdoor Mass at Athletic Park.

Says Pam: “I think for me I live in two worlds and have two languages, the deaf language and the hearing language. I speak the deaf language because I was brought up with it.”

St Dominic's Wing for Deaf Children is alive and well and integrated with St Joseph's School in Feilding, says principal Sister Gemma.