Welcome to the first Watch Us Panui
Watch Us is a space for Deaf people to come together to share our turangawaewae, our stories as Deaf people in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are very excited about this project. We have worked carefully in the background learning a lot on the way. We had to think hard about our Deaf Community in New Zealand, about ethical storytelling, possible topics for notes and questions and how to make the project work.
Here is a photo of Rachel Coppage, Victoria Lessing and me developing ideas last year. Thora Hubner has now joined us while Rachel Coppage is supporting us from the background. We also thank Kirsten Morgan from SUTHERLANDesign for building the website too.
We are all passionate about the wellbeing of the Deaf community. We are interested in Deaf Studies research and want to share and explore our stories and Deaf Studies with the community.
Stories are powerful. They can cut through prejudice, build understanding and motivate people to challenge injustice.
On the website we have some stories – most come from the NZSL Family Camp back in January. Thank you to each person for sharing your story. Its time to add more stories, including your story.
We can come to your place to run a workshop for your local Deaf community. In the workshop we will talk more about the stories, what it means to be a Deaf person in New Zealand and, if you want, to add your story too. See the flyer for more information.
Join our Facebook group Watch Us (closed group for Deaf people) and the Watch Us page (for everyone).
Rachel Noble (Watch Us Project Lead)