New Zealand Sign Language Week 2024: Taupō teacher reveals perks of signing

A group plays New Zealand Sign Language games at a REAP Central Plateau event in Taupō.

A Taupō teacher is urging locals to give signing a go this New Zealand Sign Language Week.

Judith Peez teaches introduction to New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) courses at REAP Central Plateau and also runs special events to mark occasions like the language’s awareness week.

This year’s national theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere”, which Peez said helps to highlight the fact it’s not just deaf people who use sign language.

“Yes, it is usually the first language of the deaf community... but it’s also for everybody.”

This included families and friends of deaf and hard-of-hearing people, but also people with other medical conditions or needs that made verbal communication challenging.

There are also plenty of applications for the general public, said Peez; she has found it useful for communicating at a distance, or at times when a spoken conversation would disrupt others.

“I was in a situation recently with a friend who also signs, and we were in a public meeting.

“It would have been totally inappropriate to chat verbally, but we were able to have a conversation.”

Data from the 2018 census showed there were about 4600 deaf people in Aotearoa, but 23,000 people who used NZSL.

It is one of New Zealand’s official languages, along with English and te reo Māori, and has its own unique grammar and slang.

National celebrations for New Zealand Sign Language Week have included the release of a signed version of Six60′s Pepeha.

In Taupō, REAP Central Plateau has put up a display at Taupō Library, held an NZSL games morning last weekend, and will have a spoken and signed reading of children’s book The Wonky Donkey at REAP Kinloch Playgroup at 10.15am on May 9.

Peez said that beyond NZSL Week, the organisation aims to connect signing people in the community, as well as encouraging others to learn the language.

“I’d like to create a space where people here in our deaf community can come together with hearing people.”

• For more information about NZSL courses and groups at REAP Central Plateau, email ako@reapcentralplateau.nz, call 07 378 8109, or drop into 73 Tītīraupenga Street, Taupō.