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10
Whakarongo Mai.
I am Māori.
I am Deaf.
a research summary
Jillian Scammell 2019
Methodolgy
Acknowledgements
Participants
Interviews
Literature
Intro
Conclusion
In the early part of the journey for many of the participants who are audiologically different from the majority, their stories often include tales of isolation, displacement and oppression. #1 conveys the alienation he has experienced on account of being Deaf,
#1 “It sucks. It was really hard for people who got hearing aids then. You just get name called. People call you names and you just feel worthless. You feel like, ‘Why am I here? What am I doing? What am I?.....How come I got this hiding from Dad? Always giving me a hiding cos I`m not listening...He kept whacking my head. I was forever running away. That`s why I never spent a lot of time at home. My mates teased me at school. My father don`t want me.”
In reference to assuming Māori identity, # 1 reveals that when he was younger he had no concept of being Māori ,
“ I thought I was a Pākehā. Only because of Mum, cos she`s a Pākehā and that`s what I thought I was. But then when some of my home mates were saying, ‘Boo you`re as black as hell and you call yourself a Pākehā’. Well what`s the difference? That`s what I couldn`t understand. I`m just trying to find out what`s the difference between a Māori and a Pākehā. I didn`t think I was anything like the old man. And then I started to realise and I did it all by myself. Went to jail. Did heaps of years in jail. That`s where I done my learning. You`ve got nothing else better to do. I had heaps of time to learn about myself. Yeah and that`s where I learnt about who I am and where did I come from and where my mother and father come from.”
#2 `s early years, likewise ,were weighted with experiences of isolation and oppression. He shares,
“I didn`t have enough communication. It was just simple signs like, ‘Oh come here”. I felt like when they looked at me, just simple signs like a monkey. It wasn`t meaningful communication. I felt like when I watched them talking to each other it was boring. And I would sit there isolated and couldn`t communicate, couldn`t be involved. Didn`t like that”.
Māori Deaf identity
Māori identity
# 2 also experienced alienation in the Māori world on account of being Deaf, and still experiences ongoing, barriers to strengthening his Māori identity,
“ So growing up and going to the marae and things like that. Growing up in a Maori family I really didn`t know much about what the marae meant. Sitting on the floor, doing karakia (prayer/incantation), communicating-things like that. When men would get up and do their whaikōrero I didn`t really understand them. I just kinda looked at the ceiling and around the room. Hongi and things like that-yeah, I would just copy. So I really didn`t get anything growing up...
There are lots of barriers. Having access to an interpreter, things like that. Different marae. I think, ‘How can I communicate with my family’. You know, I`d try signing. Oh there are lots of barriers everywhere, iwi (tribe), hui (meeting), registration. What does it all mean? How do I connect to my family?.. I would like to have done full time courses but how do you afford an interpreter for that? .. I`m saying, ‘I want to learn, and I applied for iwi funding for they do like, Māori business funding, but learning about your identity or any other courses and they wouldn`t provide any funding and I have never succeeded in that. The problem is interpreting. Who`s going to provide interpreters for the course?..And I`m saying, ‘look at all those hearing Māori. They are able to achieve whatever they want and I can`t.”
Māori Deaf
It was through an affiliation with Patrick Thompson which impacted significantly on # 2 in assuming his Māori Deaf identity. It also awoke the political yearnings which led to his involvement with Tu Tangata Turi o Aotearoa. He attests,
“Patrick Thompson, he taught me the most. I learnt what I was capable of. From all the Māori Deaf, we learn from our community, our identity. Patrick told me about being Māori and being Deaf and about the barriers we face and it really woke me up to it. You know, he was saying, ‘Come on you guys! Come on you guys, don`t stay the same.’ It was tiring for him. Very tiring.
# 3`s Deaf journey has likewise been marked by struggle and exclusion but also self discovery and belonging. She shares her early story,
“When I was five I had to get hearing aids and my language was a bit delayed and because of all the little bits I was already missing I found it hard to socialise with other kids and be friends with them and be confident enough to go out and hang out with them.”
She goes on to tell her story of coming into Deaf Education,
“I went from being in a class of thirty to a class of four. We were all very similar. We were all struggling in a way and so it was just nice to be able to connect to others who were also Deaf and also trying to develop themselves as well....I think being exposed to Deaf culture and sign language and being around others who were similar to you, you begin to create this environment where you feel safe and you become quite confident in who you are....And then that helped me to build my identity off that, off the confidence I had developed over the time...When I`m at (Deaf Education Centre) it`s a whole different thing. It`s my culture. It`s where everyone is. It`s where I belong.”
In reference to the assumption of her Māori Deaf identity # 3 explains,
“My Māori identity came to me before my Deaf identity. I`ve been a bit to the West Coast where I am from, where I affiliate to. My family they are, I don`t want to say traditional, but we are. We do like to get together and have family huis and so I grew up on the idea of putting my family first and you know, having loose values and beliefs around Māori, like myths and legends. So that was kind of drilled into me when I was growing up because I didn`t know anything else. And I wasn`t friends with anyone who was Pākehā...Being in an environment where people have similar beliefs and similar values I think it has that confidence where you can be like, ‘Oh yeah I can go down this path because I`m familiar with it and it`s who I am’. Then again you develop the identity. I guess it`s the same with Deaf but they both came at different times. Yeah...I didn`t realise I could have a Māori Deaf identity probably until I did Deaf studies at van Asch (Deaf Education Centre) which was year ten or year nine. That`s also when I started learning about Deaf culture but that`s like when different kinds of people who are Deaf also can be involved in Deaf culture so Māori Deaf was one of them. So I was quite suprised that that could be such a thing and then I realised that there were other Māori Deaf students at van Asch and so we all were kind of our own little group where we are all kind of the same as each other again. And then it`s when we develop the need to, well not the need, the want, to show or tell others about our Māori side as well...Whilst being Māori we also want similar things for the Deaf culture. Because of the similar want or need that we have, we again become confident in ourselves .”
The 2018 research I undertook as part of my Masters Degree included personal experiences, shared by twelve individuals, of their respective journeys of assuming Māori, Deaf and Māori Deaf identities in Aotearoa New Zealand. The participants were selected through a relational framework, either from those I personally knew or through a second hand connnection with someone I knew. Two of the twelve participants were referred by other members of the Māori Deaf community, one through a Resource Teacher of the Deaf and two emerged out of conversations at a Deaf community event.
I tried as far as possible to represent members of the Māori Deaf community from a range of ages, balance of genders, variation of urban and rural geographic locations, preferred languages and level of involvement in Māori, Deaf or Māori Deaf politics.
The interviews were recorded visually and audiologically and later transcribed into written English for further analysis of themes according to the research question and those that arose from the stories.
I use the term Deaf, spelt with a capital D, to refer to members of the community who are both audiologically and culturally Deaf, thereby surpassing the propensity to judge them in exclusivist terms. This is a mindful bid to be inclusive of all members of the Deaf community, whilst I am also respectful of the small d, big D definition which has helped shape the identity journey for many.
In these real stories, the human need to belong emerges as a topic, both explicitly and implicitly, sometimes elequently expressed and at other times, merely felt as a seeking of light between dark wedges of alienation and oppression.
Resilience too, was only hesitantly discussed with the participants and yet their persoanl accounts are a testament to the human spirit and its ability to withstand the cold face of alienation, whilst striving for deeper human connection and emanicipation from the prevalent, negative stereotypes of society.
I sincerely hope I have done justice to these stories of the heart with which I have been entrusted, in keeping within the framework of this kaupapa.
Kirsten Smiler (2006), as one of the few researchers in the field of Māori Deaf identity, provides some methodological guidance for this essay. She negotiates the data gathering in her research, through culturally independent methodologies, from both Māori and Deaf perspectives.
I follow suit, locating this research within both kaupapa Maori and Deaf research frameworks, thereby enabling the inquiry to be reframed in culturally relevant ways. This provides space for the ontologies and epistimologies of Māori and Deaf to be conveyed in the stories.
Pūrākau as methodology seems most fitting for this research which deals in stories, whilst grappling with the nature of colonialism and its ongoing effects, to whom Deaf, Māori and Māori Deaf communities are no stranger.
I take direction from members of both Māori and Deaf communities as to how and where these stories will be shared and have offered the participants their choice of language for these conversations, utilising Sign Language interpreters where necessary.
The information and consent form too, was translated into New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) to ensure maximum understanding of the research project and the possible interview prompts were discussed prior to the interviews taking place. In the collecting of the Pūrakau, Te Reo Māori interpreters were not employed as the participants chose NZSL or spoken English to convey their stories.
Furthermore, I draw from Renee Louis`s article, Can you hear us now? Voices from the Margin: Using Indigenous Methodologies in Geographic Research (2007) for guidance in bringing in a spiritual element, which she attests is implicit in any indigenous research. She writes,
“From an Indigenous perspective, research, the search for knowledge, is considered to be a spiritual journey. In Indigenous epistemologies, ‘the greatest mysteries lie within the self at the spiritual level and are accessed through ceremony’ (Sinclair, 2003). The spiritual aspect of life is as important to the search for knowledge as is the physical and it can only be accessed through prayer, ceremony, vision quests, and dreams. (Louis, p. 137).
I therefore have employed a contemplative inquiry mode, through my daily meditative practice, to inform my engagement with the participants and with the research, with reflexivity, mindfulness and respect. In this way I truly hope I have represented the heart of each participant and can contribute to new wave of identity politics in a way which is truly empowering.
Smiler, 2006
Smiler challenges the cultural assumption which is gendered within Deaf communities; the propensity of a blanket viewpoint to defocus on internal cultural and power differentials, across race, ethnicity, nationality and class. The risk of endogenous colonialism in this paradigm of creating a universal Deaf identity, seeks to eclipse the underlying diversity, particularly of minority groups in the Deaf narrative.
McIlroy & Storbeck, 2011
The authors purport that Deaf identity is not a static concept but rather an “ongoing quest for belonging”
Furthermore, they urge an approach beyond the reductionist modernist model, which gives space to define identity in a way which is self-determined and flexible, thereby allowing for co-existence in more than one world.
Awanui Te Huia, 2015
also acknowledges a shifting landscape in the manner Māori identify themselves.
The present wave of Māori identity politics, Te Huia informs, acknowledges the heritage aspect of belonging through whakapapa which is ascribed, along with a self proclamation or an aspect which reflects Māori in a way Māori themselves determine.
Ladd & Lane, 2013
explore the distinction between the somewhat opposing and yet relational concepts of Deaf ethnicity and Deafhood.
Theirs is a post-colonial bid to redefine Deaf peoples, their cultures and their languages in a way which escapes the “reductionist lens”
Deafhood Ladd purports, “Should be perceived as both, the sum of all evidential meanings of what ‘Deaf” might be, have been and might become and the “journey undertaken by each Deaf person to define themselves
In most cases the co-participants referred to their Māori and Deaf identities as seperate entities, which each of them have developed along differing pathways. It is indicated through the Pūrākau that the socialisation which occurred predominantly at the Deaf education centres played a significant role in assuming a Deaf identity, with family either facilitating or hindering this. In assuming Māori identity, the participants indicated that knowing their roots or whakapapapa was integral, along with cultural involvement at the marae. Likewise, whānau was significant in helping develop or frustrate this.
In terms of undertaking a Māori Deaf identity it is evident that role models have had the biggest influence, along with involvement at Rauamoko Marae and other Māori Deaf hui. All of the participants without exception have experienced alienation in various ways as members of minority communities within mainstream society, and sometimes as further minorities within minority groups, as Māori within the Deaf world and as Deaf within the Māori world. Theirs is undoubtedly a story of courage and resilience.
First wave identity politics have historically imposed criteria for ingroup membership on both Deaf and Māori communities and yet the realities of their individual journeys have been fraught with barriers to belonging under this strict regime. The “deaf in my own way” (McIlroy and Storbeck, 2011, p. 495) phase, which is mirrored by Te Huia`s (2015) concept of self proclaimed Maori identity, Smiler`s “constellation of stars” (2006, p. 120) and Ladd`s “Deafhood” (Ladd and Lane, 2013, p. 7) are emerging narratives in Deaf and Māori politics. These offer the potential to re-contextualise stories of subjugation and oppression into ones of self-determination and liberation.
References
Baker, Charlotte & Cokely, Dennis., 1980. American Sign Language; A Teacher's Resource Text on Grammar and Culture. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet Press.
Baumeister, R. (1997). The self and society: Changes, problems and opportunities. In R. D. Ashmore & L. Jussim (Eds.), Self and identity (pp. 191–217). New York: Oxford University Press
Foster, S., & Kinuthia, W. (2003). Deaf persons of Asian American, Hispanic American, and African American backgrounds: A study of intraindividual diversity and identity. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8, 271–290
Kelston Deaf Education Centre website, Te Rautaki Matauranga Māori, Rūaumoko Marae, 2015. retrieved from: http://www.kdec.school.nz/services/marae
Ladd, P. & Lane, H. (2013), Deaf Ethnicity, Deafhood and their Relationship. Sign Language Studies 13($), 565-579. Gallaudet University Press. Retrieved September 24, 2018, from Project MUSE database.
Louis, R., Can you hear us now? Voices from the Margin: Using Indigenous Methodologies in Geographic Research. in Geographical Research, Wiley Researcher Academy, Vol. 45, issue 2, pp. 130-9, June 2007. Retrieved from:
https://doi-org.ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00443.x
MacFarlane, S., 2007, Te Pikinga ki Runga- Raising Possibilities, Retrieved from: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/journals/set/downloads/set2009_2_042_0.pdf
McIlroy, G. & Storbeck, C., Development of Deaf Identity: An Ethnographic Study, Journal of Deaf Sudies and Deaf Education, vol 16, no.4, June 20, 2011, pp. 494-511. Oxford University Press.
Ohna, S. E. (2004). Deaf-in-my-own-way: Identity, learning and narratives. Deafness & Education International, 6(1), 20–38.
Smiler, K, 2006, Māori Deaf: Perceptions of cultural and linguistic identity of Māori members of the New Zealnd Deaf community. A Masters Thesis, Victoria University, New Zealand.
Smiler, K., McKee, R.; Perceptions of Māori Deaf Identity in New Zealand, The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1 January 2007, Pages 93-111, https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enl023
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. New York: Zed Books
Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary Online. Retrieved from: http://maoridictionary.co.nz/
Te Huia Awanui, (2015), Perspectives towards Māori identity by Māori heritage language learners, New Zealand journal of Psychology, vol.44, No.3, pp. 18-28, Victoria University Press, Wellington, New Zealand .