Steve Hooker: Champion of the Deaf

CHAMPION: Steve Hooker outside Christchurch Cathedral, a building he loved.

Stephen (Steve) Hooker died on April 5, after a short illness. He was 47.
His death has left a hard-to-fill space in New Zealand's Deaf community. He was a member, an educator, an adviser and an advocate.
Steve was not born deaf, but, judging by the development of his speech pathways, he lost his hearing at about 18 months of age.
"It wasn't until his younger brother was talking better than him that I realised he had a problem," says his mum, Denise Hall. By then he was four and that was when he received his first hearing aid. Until then he had managed with "home signs" and basic lip reading.
There were three Hooker boys, Mark (the eldest), Steve and Shane, all growing up in Wanganui.
Steve was educated at a deaf unit at Castlecliff Primary School, went on to Wanganui High School, then spent a year at Van Asch Deaf Education Centre in Christchurch.
At 17 he went on an American Field Scholarship (AFS) to Model Secondary School for the Deaf in Washington DC. He lived with a Russian Orthodox family in Gettysburg in the weekends.
"He came back a radical, fired up with Deaf power and Deaf rights," says Denise.
Tom Joll got him a job at Wanganui Hospital, where he worked in records for 10 years. It wasn't enough. He was also passionate about advocating for the deaf community and he was on the national council of Deaf Aotearoa. That took him to international conferences, including one in Malaysia in 1996. There he heard that for every teacher of the Deaf there are 30,000 deaf children worldwide. He knew then, that if he was to make a difference, he had to get letters after his name. He wanted to become a teacher.
That decision took him to Teachers' College in Christchurch. He achieved academic success, getting his teaching degree, taught at Van Asch, went to Auckland to get diplomas in Special Education then went on to the Ministry of Education in 2009. He gained his Masters Degree through Newcastle University, and when he died he was doing his PhD in Deaf History. His research will be collated, continued and produced by a colleague from the University.
In the 1990s, he met film director and documentary producer, Shirley Horrocks. She asked Steve to get some of his deaf friends together so she could make a documentary. With Steve on camera, the interviewer asked him what he would do if he had a deaf child. He replied, "I would have a cigar." Not the answer she was expecting. The documentary is called See What I Mean (1992).
Steve had a huge impact on, and made a big contribution to Deaf Education in New Zealand. In an interview a few years ago he said he had a strong desire for deaf children and their families to become bicultural, functioning in two cultures - hearing culture and deaf culture - fluent in either, with oral language or sign, or, even better, both, and being able to adapt to deaf and hearing societies.
His philosophy was that deaf people can do anything except hear.
As a teacher he was inspirational, the driving force behind many who aspire to influence and lead. He was also involved in Youth Hui.
Steve liked heavy metal music, because while he couldn't hear it, he could feel it.
Last month, on behalf of her late son, Denise received a presentation at the 2016 New Zealand Sign Language Awards. In the shape of a butterfly - because butterflies are deaf - it's the Deaf Aotearoa NZSL Champion Award 2016, with Steve's name engraved on it.