Year 10 Karamu High student helps school learn daily signs during NZSL week

Karamu High School Year 10 student Te Maire Smith Dunlop has been helping teach sign language to a keen group of staff and students during New Zealand Sign Language Week.

Being able to have a New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreter has made a world of difference for Karamu High School student Te Maire Smith Dunlop.

Te Maire of Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Kahungunu descent explained the school has been very supportive in understanding her needs, pairing her with NZSL interpreter Cathie Siebert when she started last year.

“It definitely has helped me so much. I am able to understand complicated words and tasks I need to do through sign language,” she said.

The Year 10 student is also studying NCEA Level 1 NZSL as a subject via correspondence.

Correspondence learning as well as having a NZSL interpreter at school has been really good for the Year 10 student and if it wasn’t available, she wouldn’t have been able to learn NZSL.

“It’s helped me become fluent in sign language and communicate and offered me incentive to keep it up,” Te Maire said.

New Zealand Sign Language Week started on May 8 and runs until May 14, with this year’s NZSL theme being “Together we can make NZSL thrive”.

Te Maire believes it is important to celebrate NZSL Week. Not only is it one of the official languages of New Zealand, but it also helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing feel included.

“It’s quite exciting to have NZSL Week and to be able to celebrate it. It helps people communicate with me and other people who are deaf or hard of hearing.”

Seeing Cathie, the school’s NZSL interpreter, at the front of her class or assemblies has meant Te Maire’s peers often come to her and ask to learn signs.

“It’s pretty good because there’s a mix and there’s not one specific gender, which is good because then varieties of different people can learn different signs and different things.”

Cathie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and New Zealand Sign Language Interpreting from Auckland University of Technology, AUT in 2021 before moving to Hawke’s Bay last year.

Karamu High School principal Dionne Thomas said she has quickly become a key member of the Karamu staff, alongside being a vital learning tool for Te Maire.

Thomas explained it is very important to ensure that each student feels safe at school, and has the tools needed to thrive.

“The school has cherished the opportunity to have Te Maire share her culture and language with the school, and as part of NZSL week, both staff and students have been learning different signs daily with Te Maire’s help.

“Te Maire is doing her part to ensure NZSL will thrive at Karamu.”