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From the Principal
Unfortunately it was not possible for everyone from
the Centre to attend the third reading of the Bill and
given the short time frames it was not possible to
do as much consultation over who would represent
the Centre as we would have liked. In deciding how
the Centre was represented, we tried to achieve a
balance between the Centre’s management and its
Regional and Base School staff and students. In the
end, those representing the Centre included Marie
O’Brien, Niel Pouwels, Janet Stokes, Kay Pinion,
Darryl Alexander, Pam Witko, Jackie
Davidson, Pollyanna Ferguson, Janet Wilson and
Mark Bolger. The Centre was also represented by
two of the Base School’s senior students, Shivani
Dickson and Scott Densem, Jenna Holland, a
mainstreamed student from the South Island and
Andies van Zyl, a mainstreamed senior student from
the lower half of the North Island. It was wonderful
to see a number of students from Newlands College
and other mainstreamed students from the
Wellington area in the House for the reading of the
Bill and attending the celebrations in the Beehive.
For those who could not attend Parliament, the
passing of the Bill was celebrated at the Centre.
A morning tea was held on 6 April to acknowledge
that the Bill would be passing into law on that day.
A celebration was also arranged for the Base School
students during the lunch hour and staff were invited
to a live webcast of the proceedings in Parliament in
the Centre’s the Conference Room.
On Monday 10 April the Governor General signed
the New Zealand Sign Language Bill at Government
House in Wellington. The Hon. Ruth Dyson, David
McKee, Rachel McKee, Lynette Pivac, Shona
McGee, Kim Robinson, Victoria Manning,
representatives from the Office for Disability Issues
and parliamentary staff were In attendance to
witness this final step in New Zealand Sign
Language becoming an official language of New
Zealand. The New Zealand Sign Language Bill can
now be referred to as the New Zealand Sign
Language Act.
The New Zealand Sign Language Act has raised the
profile of New Zealand Sign Language. I am hoping
that this will assist our arguments for increased
funding to make New Zealand Sign Language
available to deaf children. In particular we need
increased resourcing to ensure that all deaf children
from the time they are detected as having a hearing
loss have the opportunity, along with their families, to
learn New Zealand Sign Language. We also want to
ensure that all Deaf children through their preschool
and school years have access to a New Zealand
Sign Language curriculum. While we have
developed a New Zealand Sign Language
curriculum, we now need the resources to implement
it.
Ian Cocks
Principal
It was a wonderful experience to be in the gallery
filled with representatives of the Deaf community
who had come from right around New Zealand to
celebrate the passing of the Bill. It was enormously
encouraging to see that the majority of parties in
Parliament working together over an issue, clearly
recognising the importance to the Deaf Community
of this legislation and it was also impressive to see
how well those members had been briefed about the
issues surrounding this legislation. I am sure this will
have been due to the dedicated work of Victoria
Manning from the Office for Disability Issues and the
staff who have supported her.
It has been a long, struggle to make this Bill a reality
and we must not forget to pay tribute to Ruth
Dyson for spearheading the struggle. Her efforts
and support have been magnificent. I would also like
to acknowledge the work of a former Chairperson of
the Centre, Hilary McCormick. Hilary worked
tirelessly for many years to see New Zealand Sign
Language become an official language of New
Zealand. It was wonderful to see Hilary at
Parliament joining in the celebrations.
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