Kia ora koutou,
Joanne President Deaf Aotearoa
Executive Board Key messages
- Congratulations NZSL Week. Staff amazing job and hard work. We hear positive feedback, and this year is the biggest ever.
- We know there have been some changes this year to NZSL Week, but we have seen big growth and more reach. This means more people are learning NZSL. That is the purpose of NZSL Week, to raise awareness and get more people to learning NZSL. This allows Deaf people to be more involved in NZ society.
- The Executive Board will organise a Maori Deaf Workshop with the Maori Deaf community about how a Te Tiriti partnership would look like between Deaf Aotearoa and Maori Deaf community. Workshops consultation will be over a one year period.
- Deaf Aotearoa needs to update their Constitution to match the new Incorporation Act 2022. The Constitution Committee has wrapped up, and now Executive Board representatives will have workshops and online workshops in the next few months meeting with the community about these changes for this year’s AGM.
- MBIE invited Deaf Action and Deaf Aotearoa to meet in February to discuss fire alarms and the safety of Deaf people. This was a good discussion about different government agencies’ responsibilities for fire safety. After the recent fire in Wellington, some government agencies have invited Deaf Aotearoa to meet again. We acknowledge Deaf Action’s long advocacy for legislation change. Deaf Aotearoa has also invited Deaf Action to be involved.
Have some news coming soon about our WFD delegates. Keep an eye out for more updates.