Locals celebrate International Deaf Week

The last full week of September is International Deaf Week and everyone around the World will be celebrating this with the aim to promote awareness of Deaf people and Deaf Culture. The Cook Islands is doing this as well with all our members here having travelled from the Outer Islands a few days ago. Everyone is staying at Tiare Village (thanks Adrienne for all your support) and are making the most of catching up with each other after last meeting as a group a year ago. Our Deaf group do not often get the opportunity to meet together and speak to one another in a language they all understand. Actually they rarely have the opportunity to speak in their own language which is sign language, as not many people know how to so the small amount of time that they manage to spend together each year is extremely important. This event has been made possible because of the Community Initiative Scheme Funding programme so thank you NZAID/AUS AID for your ongoing support.
We have a small group of people who are deaf in the Cook Islands. There is one deaf person on each of the islands of Atiu, Mauke, and Mitiaro, five deaf people on Aitutaki and five deaf people on Rarotonga. There are 13 people who are potentially isolated, not just by being a minority group/individual living on one of the islands, but also not being able to communicate the same as other members of the community.
A person who is deaf is someone who cannot hear. The level of hearing can vary depending on the individual which can for some people cause difficulty in speaking. So this is generally the only problem that a person has.
Our Cook Island Deaf Awareness Week will be focusing on re-establishing friendships and communication with each other, strengthening our language (sign language); finishing off our Cook Island Sign Language DVD and book; identifying how we can get together each year at this time and promote further deaf awareness programmes and forming a Non Government Organisation for people who are deaf. Our Annual General Meeting will be held this Thursday 30th September at 4.30pm at Tiare Village. We have brought over a NZ Sign Language school teacher, Nirvana May who is spending time with us at USP and teaching us how to teach others properly. This will provide us with the skills to help other adults and children on our own islands who are both hearing and non hearing. This has been a real privilege having Nivana and her mother here as her expertise and knowledge has been amazing and she is a great role model for all our deaf, as she is a qualified school teacher and achieved many things in her life. Actually she is a good role model for everyone.

By Donna Smith

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