Australian sign language plays an important role in the hearing-impaired community.
For students at St Patrick’s College Mackay, the establishment of an AUSLAN club has enabled them to communicate with the hearing impaired and learn about the club’s history and culture.
Long serving St Patrick’s teacher and AUSLAN Co-ordinator Brett Comerford revealed that the Club was “going strong” with 43 members at present.
This Saturday July 22 the St Patrick’s College AUSLAN Club will travel to Townsville to perform the Australian national anthem for the North Queensland Cowboys v Parramatta Eels NRL fixture at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
“We have Kylie Denning (Educational Interpreter), Jenny Magnussen and Erin Greentree (community representative) join us each week to give guidance to the students,” said Mr Comerford.
“Our AUSLAN Club also signed the national anthem for the first hearing impaired State of Origin clash between Queensland and NSW ever held outside of a capital city” he said.
“This year we have signed the Australian and New Zealand national anthems on ANZAC Day at the main Mackay ceremony and we also presented a display at the College’s annual Open Night’ Mr Comerford added.
In recent years the Club have signed the national anthem for the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) at BB Print Stadium; Australian Football League (AFL) for the Gold Coast Suns at the Harrup Park Country Club and the Queensland Basketball League (QBL) at Mackay’s Multisport Stadium.
“Each year we join the National Simultaneous Story time which is an annual campaign that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books,” Mr Comerford explained.
This event takes place each year at the same time Australia wide. Through the efforts of the College’s library staff the St Patrick’s College AUSLAN Club has the benefit of viewing the National reading in Australian Sign Language.
The Club celebrates World Hearing Day each year on 3 March to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world.
“We’ve also started to introduce the AUSLAN culture at our college assemblies by inviting everyone to stand, sing and sign the national anthem all together to introduce the deaf culture into our college” Mr Comerford concluded.
By Chris Karas
St Patrick’s College AUSLAN Club members sign the national anthem at a previous North Queensland Cowboys NRL fixture in Townsville
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