Looking back to 2012, in Hamilton, there was the 50th Reunion of Hamilton Deaf Units held at the Hamilton West School, Waikato, New Zealand.

My name is Jean and I am a deaf historian and researcher for the community. Many people questioned me what is like to be deaf?, is there any history of the Deaf community, where is the School for the Deaf? over many years ago. Back in 1998, I thought I will take up a degree in HIstory along with Linguistic and Anthropology at the University until I completed my BA in 2009.

In the photo, there were two Deaf students along with two teachers of the Deaf children in 1962. The Deaf students were doing a speech therapy as a part of oral lesson under the Ministry of Education. We, Deaf people, were not allowed to use sign language in the classroom at school. We have to learn to talk but we did not understand why we are doing this these days.

Today there are three official languages in New Zealand which are Māori, New­ Zealand Sign Language and English. But English was not an official language due to theMāori people arrived in New Zealand before the European.

English is the de facto official and predominant language of New Zealand. … The Māori language (te reo Māori) of the indigenous Māori people was made the first de jure official language in 1987. New ZealandSign Language (NZSL) has also been officially recognised since 2006. Quote from

What was the reason we – Deaf people communicate in sign language today?