Big day for Judith
Ten staff at Kerikeri Retirement Village learned the basics of New Zealand’s least-used official language during Sign Language Week earlier this month.
The courses were conducted as part of the Village’s staff wellness and education programmes, one of the major benefits being that they are now able to communicate more effectively with a deaf resident in the care wing.
“Judith Cunniffe was born deaf, and had to sign secretly with her childhood sweetheart during an era where, amazingly, the use of sign language was frowned upon,” operational support manager Cheryl Silich said.
That childhood sweetheart later became her husband, Farrell, who now visits the village daily to spend time with Judith.
“Watching Farrell and Judith share their love through signing is a wonderful thing,” Cheryl added.
“Now, at last, we can join in, at least on a basic level, and communicate with Judith much more personally than through written notes on a whiteboard in her room.”
Meanwhile Beryl (Harri) Harrison, from Deaf Aotearoa, who conducted the ‘taster’ course, was very impressed by how invested the Village carers were in learning how to communicate with Judith and Farrell.
“They’re a fabulous crew, with hearts the size of a small nation,” she said.
Signing was heavily discouraged around the world for a century from 1880. Only in 1980 was it allowed back into schools in NZ. In the intervening years people were discouraged from signing, and urged instead to adopt oralism, involving lip reading and verbal communication.
Beryl drew a parallel between signing and te reo Ma¯ori.
“Huge effort went into abolishing both languages, and, through this, disenfranchising entire communities,” she said.
“Thank goodness those efforts were unsuccessful, and today both are once again official languages of our nation. How far both have come in the 39 years since 1980.”