Noel Coventry

New Zealand sends 30 athletes to the 15th World Games for the Deaf in Los Angeles, with footage of the opening ceremony. The flagbearer for New Zealand was John Ooteman, with Susie Ovens carrying the kiwi mascot. The Gallaudet Dance Company also put on a performance. Footage shows a fly by with a sign saying ‘WELCOME WORLD GAMES FOR THE DEAF’.

The New Zealand team manager, Tony Walton, reports on the team’s results at the Los Angeles 1985 World Deaf Games including where the team stayed and played at.

The opening of Kelston on a site in Archibald Road featured the infamous ‘Te Pakanga o Whau’ (The Battle of Whau) in 1959 where 86 deaf students acted in an outside play featuring a Māori-Pakeha battle near a big gum tree field.

Narrated by Tony Walton, the New Zealand team’s plans are disrupted two hours into their flight with an engine problem. They are forced to return back to Auckland.

The New Zealand Deaf team marched on Dominion Road, accompanied by police, with farewell speeches at Auckland Deaf Society before departing for the 15th World Games for the Deaf in Los Angeles.

The Battle of Whau: a drama by Kelston Deaf students for the opening ceremony of Kelston School for the Deaf, 7th November 1959.

Jane Dent reports on the National Sports Convention for the Deaf held in Auckland during Labour Weekend in 1984. The footage screened on the 6:30pm news on Saturday 20 October 1984.

It’s not often we get to see four New Zealanders on the podium at the same time, and that is what we get in this video! It's most certainly time to break out the champagne when the team gets back to their base with a speech by the team manager.