Documenting Auckland Deaf Society's history

This project enabled the preservation of a collection of culturally and historically significant documents and artefacts that have been stored at Auckland Deaf Society since our organisation was established in 1937.  These items relate to the rich history of ADS and capture the transmission of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) across generations of Deaf people.  However up until now, these valuable materials have been largely invisible to the community, and not readily available nationwide.

Over the course of this project, thousands of items were carefully scanned or photographed.  This included trophies, clothing memorabilia, photographs, newsletters, meeting minutes, social event tickets, posters, artworks, visitor books, newspaper clippings, and sporting items.

In addition, a key part of this project was the filming of “NZSL Stories”- short film clips of different Deaf people explaining the significance of items and events in NZSL.  These individuals shared socially, culturally, and politically significant experiences, each connected to specific ADS artefacts, to enhance the depth and relevance of the collection.  Over 80 compelling and culturally rich stories were recorded, which also has the additional benefit of capturing and recording NZSL in active use, as used by different generations of Deaf people. This creates a legacy, documenting the journey of NZSL for future Deaf generations.

Some of the benefits of this project have been increased knowledge and pride in the accomplishments and contribution of ADS to the Deaf community since it was established. It also brought people across generations together, strengthening our sense of community.

The project was driven by the efforts of Deaf people, including the ADS history group, external advisors and volunteers.  Volunteers devoted their time and energy to hands on tasks such as cleaning and polishing trophies, ironing vintage uniforms, preparing items for photographing, and supporting the NZSL Stories.  It also empowered the ADS history group to take an active role in organising and caring for archival material, and laid foundations for ongoing work in the recording of historical material.

The collaborative spirit of this project was one of its greatest strengths. ADS History group member Shona McGhie advised:

“Our team enjoyed every moment. We were always uncovering something new and surprising – items we had never seen before.”

The digitisation project creates a fantastic resource that will be useful not only to our Deaf community but also for Deaf Studies and NZSL students, student and graduate interpreters and NZSL Tutors, as well as the general public.  There is potential for future use in the NZSL curriculum.  It preserves and protects the status of NZSL and Deaf culture, incorporating the beliefs and opinions of language users and others towards NZSL.

A curated selection of items will be uploaded to Sign DNA: signdna.org/ads or www.signdna.org/auckland-deaf-society.  The official launch of the ADS Digitisation Project will be on Saturday 17 May 2025.

Norman Norris

Shona McGhie, Abbie Twiss and Anna Dubbelt

John Mansell (filmed by Anna Dubbelt)