Nor'West News: April 15, 2021
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6<br />
Thursday <strong>April</strong> <strong>15</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
NOR’WEST NEWS<br />
Teacher finds her voice through art<br />
• By Bea Gooding<br />
ANH QUE CHU knows a thing<br />
or two about how it feels to not<br />
be able to communicate what’s<br />
on her mind.<br />
As an art teacher for people<br />
with intellectual disabilities at<br />
the Art for Life Trust, she understood<br />
how much of a barrier<br />
language can be.<br />
Not knowing a word of English<br />
when she first moved to New<br />
Zealand in 1982 as a refugee following<br />
the Vietnam War made<br />
tasks such as getting a job that<br />
much more strenuous.<br />
But through art, she was able<br />
to find her voice and has enabled<br />
others to do the same.<br />
Said Chu: “When I first<br />
came here I couldn’t speak<br />
English, so I went to Teachers’<br />
College in the hopes of getting<br />
a full-time job. But my English<br />
wasn’t good enough at the time,<br />
so I was very depressed. I just<br />
wanted to have a full-time job,<br />
but I couldn’t.<br />
“The only thing I was good at<br />
was practical art and demonstrations<br />
on how to paint.”<br />
When teaching in schools did<br />
not go to plan, she drew on her<br />
strengths by selling off drawings<br />
and paintings.<br />
She later graduated from<br />
Ara Institute of Technology in<br />
2000 with a Bachelor of Art and<br />
Design.<br />
After landing a full-time job<br />
privately teaching children and<br />
adults at Your Studio Trust for a<br />
number of years, Chu established<br />
the Art for Life in 2013.<br />
It provides art tuition to people<br />
of all ages who live with an intellectual<br />
disability.<br />
It did not matter if students<br />
had autism, Down’s syndrome,<br />
or attention deficit hyperactivity<br />
disorder – anyone could learn<br />
how to make art using acrylic<br />
and watercolour paint, ink pens<br />
or charcoal.<br />
At the end of year exhibition,<br />
it was also a chance to generate<br />
their own income by selling<br />
pieces they made.<br />
Art enabled them to express<br />
themselves and to learn more<br />
about colour therapy, but it was<br />
a safe and inclusive place to<br />
make friends while developing<br />
confidence, self-esteem and pride<br />
in their work.<br />
Teaching art in other places<br />
STRENGTHS:<br />
Anh Que<br />
Chu (right)<br />
with student<br />
Wendy<br />
Blackler at<br />
the Art for<br />
Life Trust,<br />
which<br />
teaches<br />
people with<br />
intellectual<br />
disabilities<br />
how to find<br />
their voices<br />
through art.<br />
PHOTO:<br />
GEOFF<br />
SLOAN<br />
like high schools often meant the<br />
end goal was to make students’<br />
art stand out, but at the trust, it<br />
was a different story.<br />
“Here, that’s not the goal –<br />
show them that you love them,<br />
care about them, and help them<br />
express their feelings,” said Chu.<br />
“A lot of students here can’t<br />
talk or hear, so you have to find<br />
a way to understand and help<br />
them communicate.”<br />
Becoming a teacher was something<br />
Chu fantasised about as a<br />
teenager, but she never expected<br />
to do so in another country.<br />
Chu was a 25-year-old art student<br />
when her family was forced<br />
to flee Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1979,<br />
four years after the Vietnam War<br />
ended.<br />
External tensions stemming<br />
from the country’s dispute with<br />
Cambodia and China in the<br />
years that followed caused a mass<br />
exodus of nearly 800,000 people<br />
– most of Chinese descent, just<br />
like Chu’s family.<br />
After seven days of being<br />
crammed in a boat with 396<br />
other refugees, they eventually<br />
made it to a refugee camp in<br />
Hong Kong.<br />
It was where she met her future<br />
husband, a New Zealander, who<br />
was working at the camp with<br />
the Salvation Army.<br />
Art has been a constant in<br />
her life since her teenage years.<br />
During the war, she was inspired<br />
by an encounter with two art<br />
students, who encouraged her to<br />
study at Hanoi Arts School.<br />
Now, Chu gets to live out her<br />
teaching dream in a field she<br />
is most passionate about while<br />
making a colourful impact<br />
within the disability community.<br />
“A good teacher follows the<br />
student. Usually, you try to get<br />
the students to follow you, but<br />
here, you follow them.”<br />
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