AUT New Zealand Sign Language Team
Te Whatu Kairangi Group Award
Empowering the Deaf community through allyship
The New Zealand Sign Language Team from the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Auckland University of Technology | AUT
- Dr George Major
- Susie Ovens
- Rachel Coppage
- Pascal Marceau
- Agnes Terraschke
- Rebekah Guy
- Melissa Simchowitz
The NZSL Team (left to right) | Rebekah Guy, Rachel Coppage, Agnes Terraschke, Dr George Major, Melissa Simchowitz, Susie Ovens and Pascal Marceau
Allyship, inclusivity, whanaungatanga, partnership. These are all words that are used in today’s educational spaces, but the portfolio from the AUT New Zealand Sign Language Team exemplifies them.
The AUT team nomination highlights its commitment to partnership and collaboration. This starts within the team of seven who operate cohesively, each with a clear individual role yet are fully connected in their shared pedagogy. Partnership then extends to ākonga who benefit from learning within an authentic supportive environment of hearing and deaf people. But not stopping there, connections are built with the wider community: deaf ākonga on campus, and the Deaf, deaf refugee and Turi Māori (deaf Māori) communities. And finally, a truly special relationship exists with Rūaumoko marae – Aotearoa’s only Deaf marae – and with Tū Kōkiri learners who are tangata whenua.
These relationships showcase the amazing consideration the AUT team has embedded into their everyday practice. Their goal is “to create a resilient community, support a healthy and vibrant language, and to graduate students who embody and actively practise allyship”. This is exemplified through one student’s desire to “become a trilingual interpreter and connect with my Māori heritage“. The AUT Team’s passion brings Aotearoa’s third language and two cultures to the forefront with great care.