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It's one of NZ's official languages yet still a mystery to most of us; the sign language used by the Deaf community. As part of Deaf Awareness Week, we asked Kerry Locker-Lampson about being an interpreter.

Deaf people have had unfair trials through lack of interpreters telling them what is happening in courts.

There is still much lack of understanding among the general public about the needs of deaf people, says Pat Dugdale, field officer in Wellington for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

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.”

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.

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.

Applications are invited for the above position based in the Wellington Welfare Office for the Deaf. Interpreting work will include areas such as welfare, court, political meetings, medical, etc. Application giving full curriculum vitae and a VHS video tape of yourself of no less than 15 minutes presented in sign language.

What do you do in the deaf unit at Hutt Valley Memorial College when everything is spic and span ready for a Duchess to pay a visit and someone spills a pot of black ink on the carpet?

Madedra, the Manawatu Deaf Drama Group, is putting on a show 'People' which plays at the National Library next Sunday. They have also been invited to perform in the International Festival of Deaf Theatre in Spain but still needed to raise enough money.

In spite of wet weather, there was a large attendance of Catholic clergy and public at the blessing and opening of St. Dominic's School for the Deaf and Dumb, at Dover Street, Island Bay, yesterday afternoon. This school, conducted by the Sisters of St. Dominic, is the first Catholic School for the education of deaf-mutes to be established in New Zealand.

Wellington City councillors, renowned for their verbal spats, were staying strangely quiet this morning. As part of Shut Up Day, run by the Deaf Association of New Zealand, the Mayor and councillors were reduced to talking in sign language between 8am and midday.