VIDEO SIGNS FIJI ANTHEM
AVIDEO of the national anthem being performed using sign language was launched as part of International Week of the Deaf and Fiji Day celebrations.
The video was produced through a partnership between Deaf Consultancy Pacific, Fiji Association of the Deaf and the University of the South Pacific’s Faculty of Arts, Law, and Education.
The man behind the video was Krishneer Sen, a deaf Fijian of Indian descent.
He is an advocate for the deaf community, including those with intersectional identities living in the Pacific Islands.
During the launch, Mr Sen articulated how he used to watch the national anthem being sung in English, iTaukei and FijiHindi.
“As a kid, I used to watch the national anthem video on TV and people singing it verbally,” he said.
“I couldn’t hear them and feel the pride of singing it.
“I used to wish that I could hear and feel the same way, hearing people would hear and feel.
“During the school assembly, my school friends and I used to sign the national anthem in the signed English version — a system of manual communication that strives to be an exact representation of English vocabulary and grammar.”
Mr Sen said the launch of the sign language video was a milestone achievement for native sign language users which allows the deaf community, one of the most marginalised linguistic minorities of Fiji, to freely express themselves in their natural language.
“Do we know the meaning of the national anthem? No. We may sing it, hear it or hum it, but do we know the real essence of the words.
“Sometimes, a lot is lost in translation and a lot more goes missing for those who are deaf.
“The meaning of the national anthem was ambiguous to us and this caused our feelings and pride to be disconnected.
“We learnt that this does not work well for us.
“The English version is not native to the deaf culture and therefore this idea of a national anthem in sign language was formed a few years ago by a few deaf leaders with diverse backgrounds and is still being signed within the deaf community only.”