SignDNA greatly values the support of the Deaf community and others in finding relevant material and sharing them with us so that we can include it in our archive for everyone’s enjoyment and learning. We consider all artefacts to be taonga (culturally valued item) and try to treat them in a way that recognises the artefact’s mana.
Films and videos
SignDNA is proud of the number of films and videos we have already collected and processed into the archive. However we believe that there are many more culturally valuable and important films and videos sitting in boxes in attics and spare rooms around New Zealand. These are at risk of being thrown away, or just being left to slowly disintegrate. SignDNA needs your help now to locate these films and videos! If you have films you would like to donate, or you know of where a film might be that we can follow up on, please let us know. We welcome all donations and leads.
Photographs
When SignDNA was established we focused on locating and processing films and videos as these were most at risk. However we recognise that over the years Deaf people have had far greater access to a photography camera than a film camera. We know that there are some fantastic photographs of Deaf history floating around in people’s collections. Also, adding photographs to the video pages helps to give the archive another view of the events that have shaped our community and history.
Publications – Magazines, Journals, Newsletters
Publications are an important record of how the Deaf community has developed and grown. Sometimes the publications are from the Deaf community, and sometimes they are from the mainstream but about the Deaf community. We are potentially interested in any publication that includes Deaf culture or is about Deaf life in some way. Most of the older ones are only available on paper as they were published before the internet, and so those publications need to be collected and digitised.
Articles
SignDNA has started focusing on articles that are related to Deaf people in New Zealand, or to the Deaf community. We believe they add value to the archive, and would like to know if you have any articles of any kind, please let us know. We can either scan them, or if you already have a scanned version, please email them to us.
External articles, documents and videos
In searching the SignDNA archive, you might have noticed a new purple icon on the main pages. This means an item leads to an external site (e.g. an online newspaper article or online video that is not hosted on the archive). Have a look at our Articles section to see how this works. This helps us to collaborate with other archives and makes it easier for you to find what you are looking for.
See our current priorities for external articles, documents and videos
Documents
We are also interested in other documents that do not fit under the above categories, but are still relevant to the Aotearoa New Zealand Deaf community.
Money
SignDNA has a stock of archival items awaiting assessment, digitising, editing, processing, tagging and categorising, uploading and monitoring. While we have volunteers to undertake some of these tasks, many of them require resources to complete. We hope that SignDNA will be recognised as an archive of national importance and it is a fact of life that despite the hours of volunteering, goodwill and ingenuity, some things just cost money. The archive has hosting costs, site maintenance costs, digitisation costs, the list is long and would send you to sleep. So if you are able and feel so inclined, we would warmly welcome the donation of money to SignDNA. At this time, SignDNA does not receive any state funding, and so anything and everything would be very gladly received. For now, if you wish to consider making a donation, please email us or donate directly to:
Deaf National Archive, BNZ, 02-0144-0286394-000