Weekend celebrations are kickstarted with a Māori Deaf kapa haka group to perform a haka powhiri. Vintage teachers such as Les Bury briefly summarise their experiences of working in Deaf education over the years.
“A Deaf Child in the Family” is an award-winning film which shows authentic scenes from Deaf education centres at Kelston, St Dominics and Sumner, produced as a resource for families of deaf children.
Kelston Deaf Education Centre hosts its annual sports day, with athletics, swimming and prizegiving.
Students from the Titirangi School for the Deaf visit the construction site of the future Kelston School for the Deaf.
Titirangi students and their families picnic at the Parau Camp House in West Auckland. The property was purchased in 1955 and groups of children, teachers and parents spent many a happy weekend here.
The School for Deaf annual sports day is held at Kelston with athletics, long jumping, relay races and performances.
Written and directed by Kelston School for Deaf Children Standard 3 students, the play depicts a girl's nightmare in which she is abducted by aliens and encounters witches, Frankenstein's Monster and various other creatures.
Susan Hamilton is interviewed by Meghan Coppage, where she recounts a range of experiences from her life. From growing up at a Deaf school, to her memories of time in the Deaf community in bygone days, to seeing the changes at Kelston Deaf Education Centre including the transition to new school building.
A NZSL narrated video taking viewers through the history of Auckland Schools for the Deaf, from Newton East, Myers Park, Titirangi, Mt Wellington and finally, Kelston.
Raw footage of an interview with Patrick Thompson attempting to connect with a Māori culture he was denied growing up. Patrick provides a voice for Māori Deaf, to grow understanding about the challenges they face, and to promote the importance of NZSL.
The New Zealand team attending the 10th World Deaf Games in Washington, USA, 1965.
Two traffic officers visit Kelston to teach older Deaf students the drivers road code.
Deaf pupils visit Auckland Zoo and enjoy group rides on an elephant at the zoo.
Parents of deaf children raised thousands of pounds to buy a beach property at Parau where a large brick hostel was built. Groups of children, teachers and parents spent many a happy weekend there.
Insight into the preparations that go into a powhiri onto Rūaumoko Marae, and rare footage of the powhiri itself, followed by an interview with Patrick Thompson.
Deaf children are taught drama skills by two Deaf visitors from the UK, in preparation for their show at the opening night of the inaugural Deaf Festival, hosted by Kelston Deaf Education Centre.
Eunike Mose, a profoundly deaf Samoan high school student, and her mother Heather, talk about the challenges of being Deaf, particularly in relation to the family’s Pasifika heritage, and education.
The Governor-General Sir Bernard and Lady Fergusson visited Kelston School for the Deaf on 4 April 1964. They were entertained by swimming and gymnastics display by its deaf pupils.
A karakia, the Lord’s Prayer, is given by two Deaf children using NZSL for the ‘Marae’ television series. This clip also contains Māori captions of the te reo Māori lyrics.
National Foundation for the Deaf produce a promotional video explaining their role and the purpose of their member organisations.
An informal annual rugby game between teams of Deaf men, married and single, which was played on one of Kelston Deaf Education Centre’s fields.
Annual school sports day at the large grounds at Mt Wellington, with the school surrounded by farmland. The Titirangi children travelled to Mt Wellington by buses. Mt Wellington closed once the Kelston hostel block opened in 1960.
Raw footage of an interview with solo mother Joanne Klaver, attempting to connect with a Māori culture she was denied growing up, and one of her two sons, Charles, who is also Deaf.
The modern dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language has been launched, and the 'Tonight' crew visit Kelston Deaf Education Centre to see Deaf students and their NZSL tutors making good use of the resource.
Students from Kelston School for the Deaf enjoy a two-day trip to a snowy Mt Ruapehu.
In November 1986, film maker Ann Andrews organised a week-long drama workshop for six 13 year olds from Kelston School for the Deaf. The workshop concluded with the play, The Magic Park, written and acted by the students.
Mai Time made one of their episodes accessible in NZSL to mark Deaf Awareness Week 1999. KDEC’s sign singing choir and Patrick Thompson made an appearance along with as did Rūaumoko Marae’s kapa haka roopu.
Tangata Pasifika visits Kelston Deaf Education Centre and meets with a number of Pasifika Deaf students part of the school’s transition programme, interviewing Rosie Amituanai and her family.
Kelston School for Deaf sends its netball and rugby teams to Russell.
The Battle of Whau: a drama by Kelston Deaf students for the opening ceremony of Kelston School for the Deaf, 7th November 1959.
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.
A look at the cultural education needs of Māori Deaf students. Māori Deaf are likely to experience more barriers in the education sector. Interviews undertaken by ‘Marae’ shows us that the multiple cultural identities of Māori Deaf are not completely accommodated for with aspirations on how to resolve this.
Michael Wi, is profiled on ‘Marae’, where he shares his experience of growing up as Māori Deaf in a paheka-centric education environment, and learning as an adult about tikanga Māori, and marae protocols.
Brief footage of the crowd at Kelston for its 45th reunion. The Auckland weather holds up for the outdoor festivities!
Michael Lynch and Kerry Titcombe won karate medals when they competed in the Deaflympics in Taiwan (gold and bronze). They are both interviewed on the grounds of Kelston Deaf Education Centre, along with the President of Deaf Sports New Zealand, Nicki Morrison.
Kelston School for the Deaf had a rugby team that played in the secondary school Grade 2C division, coming third in the 1958 season. Kelston beat St Kentigern 16 to 0.
One of the goals of 1996’s Deaf Awareness Week was to better educate New Zealanders about New Zealand Sign Language, and as part of this, One Network News visited Kelston Deaf Education Centre in Auckland. KDEC which has a new bilingual teaching method using both NZSL and English.
Nearly 500 alumni and members of the Deaf community, well presented with dinner suits, bow ties, evening gowns, hairdos and the works enjoy an evening at the Avondale Racecourse.
Two weeks after 'The Remand of Ivan Curry' screens on TV1, Police Commissioner John Jamieson meets with Jennifer Brain to work out better procedures for dealing with Deaf people in custody.
Annual Parent’s Day at Kelston School for the Deaf, with rides (horses, fire tank and alike!), performances and end-of-year prizes.
In the early 1990s, due to a breakthrough in technology, cochlear implants were starting to become the norm. The Deaf community worldwide viewed cochlear implants as a device that disregarded the need for access to sign language. Others considered such devices a miracle. In 1993, ‘60 Minutes’ investigated this controversial topic in New Zealand.
This raw, edited footage consists of interviews with Whiti Ronaki, Michael Wi and Stephanie Awheto - a trilingual interpreter, on topics relevant in the Māori Deaf world.
A Deaf Drama group perfoms 'A Visit to Kiwiland' at Kelston with supporting acts by the Sign Singers. The evening fundraised $766.00 towards the purchase of a TTY and to sponsor two pupils from Kelston to attend the World Deaf Games in Christchurch 1989.