Last week I was looking through my diary as November and December are nearer the end of the year. My memory served me to recall the conversation with the secretary of the Waikato Deaf Club (Waikato River Deaf Society – note this name will be formalised to the former name as the Waikato Deaf Club once the legal papers are done). Then I received a couple of texts from the family of one Deaf elderly chap, and this message stuck in my mind: ‘where is the photo of the brothers taken at the birthday luncheon?’ I looked through photos donated by the daughter of her late Deaf father and found the image I was looking for. Meanwhile, I posted a video for the Deaf community because I could not locate the message I wrote down through Facebook Social Media. Finally, the person was contacted, and we kept in touch. Today I looked at the group of Deaf members at the Waikato Deaf Society Inc without the year and names on the back of the printed photos.

Goodness, gracious, no names, for I do not recognise everyone, but I know less than 5 Deaf people in the largest group of members in the top photo above. These two photos above were taken after 1966 or later.

I am fortunate to have a small group of Deaf with disabilities and elderly people in the Waikato today, and I would need their help remembering these people’s names. This is my job to do as a deaf historian/ researcher. There are few currently long-serving Deaf members of the Waikato Deaf Club today.

Then I came across another photo of the Deaf brothers; one of them will turn ninety years old in a week. Gordon is the name of the brothers I mention here, he had two Deaf brothers in the family, and now these two Deaf brothers passed away recently, within two years apart (in November 2022).

The history of the Waikato Deaf Society Inc. as I was told about the naming of the club by Kathryn W. (nee Mills), which was formed in 1956 around late seasons, either Spring or Summer times, according to the National Deaf News First Edition 1963-1968. Unfortunately, the club disbanded/dissolved in 1992 due shortage of members or other reasons, and I was travelling in OE.

I have supported the Waikato Deaf Club (Waikato River Deaf Club) since 2018. Before the Lockdown in New Zealand in 2020, the Waikato Deaf club was put on hold until the Lockdown finished. Before 2018, a new generation of Deaf people tried to restart the club. Still, it was unsuccessful until a few different Deaf people with experiences with outside Deaf clubs took over around 2018 or 2019.

From today, I am starting to research Deaf member’s names, label names on the back of the photos, make video recordings from a few Deaf elderly people in the Waikato over a cuppa or other options, collect any unwanted images or share with the Waikato Deaf Club and, of course, preserve their history alive for the next generation to come. The final step is to send it to the SignDNA website via the person who made contact with me.