Waikato Deaf Units Schools History

Musique, soirée musicale à l’école intermédiaire Melville. (Music, music evening at Melville Intermediate School.)

We, D/deaf students of Hamilton West School, along with our teachers of the Deaf children—Miss Josephine Keenan and Miss Margaret Tilly. The students’ names were Murray, Carey, Nelville, Karyn, Jean (blogger/historian/researcher), Susan, Julie, Allan, Shelley, Trevor, and Simon. The surnames are not suitable for the public until their permission is approved once the project is complete.

gratter, gratter en suivant les instructions de nos professeurs…(strumming, strumming along as we followed our teachers’ instructions…)

We, D/deaf students, were unaware of our identities as Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and we did not communicate in sign language; we only spoke orally during school days. Yes, we did a small sign language/gesture communication where we met our Deaf friends during the playground and school holidays.

Le bruit du bruit a complété le silence pour nous, car nous sommes des étudiantes sourdes./Le bruit du bruit a complété le silence pour nous, car nous sommes des étudiants sourds. (The sound of noise completed silence to us, for we are Deaf students.)

When we played the ukulele, we felt the echoes and vibrations of the sound. We use not just the ukulele; we use the triangle musical instruments as percussion with the ukulele. How do we feel (hear) the sound from the ukulele or the triangle? Have a look at the photo again! The Teachers of the Deaf children on the left side were there for us to follow the timing of the tune by counting the beat when the Teachers of the Deaf children used the mouth pattern and looked for the clue when to tap the triangle. We have to mesmerise the counting beats and use the right tune and strumming until it is correct.

We played ukulele and triangle music at the concert one night. I will have to source the newspaper clippings explaining why we were there.

La musique peut être vue ou ressentie par tout le monde, en particulier les personnes sourdes et les personnes en situation de handicap Que la musique devienne équitable dans la vie quotidienne partout dans le monde Supprimons les barrières qui nous empêchent d’écouter n’importe quelle musique (Music can be seen or felt by everyone, especially Deaf people and people with disabilities. Let music become equal in everyday lives anywhere in the world. Remove the barriers that stop us from listening to any music.)

When they left school, no one played music except me, and I played the piano at home. I also often played music pieces for the seniors at the Rest Homes. I stopped playing the piano in 2010 because I lead a busy life with my partner and three dogs in the rural lifestyle, working as a Deaf Community Liaison/Advocator and Historian/Researcher. The specialist at the Waikato Hospital declared my diagnosis was I have a C4-C7 Disc Cervical Spine Degenerated Radiculopathy on my right side from 2011. Music is still in my heart wherever I go, whether by travelling or watching/feeling music from YouTube or television.

This photo is to treasure our memories and show the next generation what life was like at school and the concert. I will be collecting their stories about the ukulele/triangle and the concert later on for the book and on this WordPress Domain site (Paid Domain Site)- https://waikatodeafeducationunits.blog/

and donation to http://kck.st/4baNnK1

Sans votre don, mes projets seront perdus et la prochaine génération ne pourra pas apprendre notre histoire des sourds de Waikato Veuillez réfléchir à nouveau et faire un don pour préserver notre histoire
(Without your donation, my projects will be lost, and the next generation will not be able to learn about our Waikato Deaf History. Kindly give yourself another thought and donate to two projects to preserve our history.)

Senza il suo contributo, i miei progetti andranno persi e le future generazioni non potranno conoscere la nostra storia dei sordi di Waikato La prego di rifletterci e donare per preservare la nostra storia