Timeline

0:08
Pam
80 Manners Street it was a rented hall upstairs. I remember the gated lift to go up, you’d have to pull it to close. I used to love going up, it was fun. But a big problem was the people stuck outside because you couldn’t shut the door properly you really had to pull it two times to go up. People would be stuck waiting downstairs and we couldn’t see from upstairs. There were no texting at the time. It was hard to know when people arrived. It was a big hall. From my memory they said it was a dance studio but I remember it was more like a tramping club that used the space. It was just one big room, with a small kitchen that’s all. We had Christmas parties there, my father was Father Christmas once. My brother was frightened and crying because of Father Christmas not realising it was his father.
1:42
Pam
That was a celebration in 1948, I’m not sure if that was the same hall because it looks smaller to me now! But that celebration was in July 1948 it was one month after my parents got married in June. In that photo my mum is wearing a going-away outfit, for her post-wedding honeymoon. She was wearing that with the flowers on her left chest. From that photo and what I see now there 2 people left there. There was one family named C-U-N-N-I-F-F-E (Cunniffe), the mother and father were hearing and the 3 children all boys were Deaf. Two of those boys are in the photo but are young and in their teenager years about 16 and 12 years old I’m not sure. The two boys are still alive today, one lives in Australia, his name is D-E-N-N-I-S (Dennis). The others name is F-A-R-R-E-L-L (Farrell) and he lives in K-E-R-I-K-E-R-I (Kerikeri) up north above Auckland. He is now 91 years old. That’s my memory of that. Lot’s of games, activities, and bowls in the hall. I didn’t go all the time, only when there were special events like Christmas.
3:41
Pam
The dancing was before.... there was a lot of dancing and spin the bottle. We’d have playing cards the spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds in different corners of a grid and we’d have to dance in across the grid. The music…I can’t remember if we had music! But if it was a proper party like an anniversary sometimes they would bring a band in. It was a while ago now though. But I think for the dancing we didn’t have music we just danced! I remember most people were very good dancers at doing the WA-L-T-Z (Waltz). There were many good dancers, we’d turn the lights off….I can’t quite remember but we’d turn them off and on, and stopped. We’d see who is still in their grid and if they were in a specific corner they be ruled out. The dancing numbers dwindled down. We loved it. You dance with different people, that’s what I remember. There was G-A-N——— or G-O-R-D-E-N —— all of those, something like that I don’t know. That was in the early days and then it all changed.

0:04
Pam
M-O-N-K’s (Monks) Farm in R-E-I-K-O-R-A-N-G-I (Reikorangi) in Waikanae, you would travel there and down the narrow, gravel roads to get to the picnic area. We’d always go there for a picnic.
0:38
Pam
It was Jim Monks family farm, his parents house sat at the top. Jim and his wife Jean with 5 children, they are Deaf but Jim’s parents are hearing. The children are hearing. They had a big house and lawn near the river. There were pigs there. We’d always go there for the picnic down near the river. Hills and farms everywhere really just in the middle of the country. It was a popular place to go.
1:37
Pam
Jim is my fathers cousin. So, my father’s mother and Jim’s father are brother and sister. But none of them are Deaf just our generation. Jim also had a Deaf sister. Her name is Margeret, she lives in Rotorua/ Taupō and is still alive. So, 2 Deaf on their side and 3 Deaf for my side (my dad and his two Deaf sisters) all close cousins.
2:31
Pam
There, then sometimes we’d go to Waikanae beach I think people just liked going there that were Deaf.

0:08
Pam
Always at Christmas parties, or anniversary party we always invited the Mayor of Wellington who would come because at that time they were a patron of the club. They always came they were really good, and the other one who usually came was S-I-R W-A-L-T-E-R N-A-S-H (Sir Walter Nash) a Labour MP. He would take the train and walk and would bring boxes of chocolate to share. He always came and it was normal to invite a high official MP for Christmas parties, for sports too.
1:05
Pam
That time there were no interpreters so yeah.
1:14
Pam
We'd all be sitting and nodding along. Oh! That's right there was L-W (L Walton) would sign and speak for those there.

0:07
Pam
Victoria Street - I don't remember much about that hall. But I remember lawn bowls being played there, and there were club nights there. I can't quite place it but I think it was that time I stopped going to Deaf club, because I was a teenager and I didn't think it was cool. I remember that time all the CODAs and all hearing people but no one ever took children to the Deaf club at night. It wasn't a place you took children only adults and we stayed with the grandmother to baby sit. That time I think I was in doubt about the hearing world or the deaf world so I think that's why I stopped going, I thought it wasn’t cool. I stayed at home started doing my own thing.

0:06
Pam
This was called 'Loaves and Fish Hall'. It was next to a church and it was a nice hall. It's still there today. The Deaf Club at that time was in '71 and I was single and I meet my husband at this hall. There was bowling played there and then I started going back to Deaf club. But I don't know why they rented it there. It was stone or concrete walls.
1:08
Pam
There was a band on social nights. You could bring and buy things to make like J-A-M (jam) and sell it. There was always fundraising and raffles going on. The goal was to buy a building. Growing up there was always fundraising for this and any funds would go towards this. It wasn't money for sports we just paid our own fees in this but the fundraising was for the building goal. When donations came in, it went to the building fund.
2:09
Pam
Yeah I was wearing straight trousers and a dress, yes a dress. But a MINI dress and famous hot white pants. You'd have a dress, not with shorts but, it would be a bit open and you would see 'shorts' and we called them hot pants. They were the fashion then. Yeah, very much hots pants and mini dresses. Also with skinny high heels. There were high neck dresses.
3:19
Pam
We would bring plates, women brought them but not the men.
3:30
Pam
A big carpark and its still the same today right next to parliament. Right down there. I think now they hire it out as a private park or something.
3:55
Wayne
There would be a band, and no alcohol. Just punch. That would be over there, and dancing over here. They were good bands, usually 1 or 2 would be over there.
4:15
Wayne
F-K (Frank Kitts) the Mayor would come
4:17
Kaz
That's right
4:20
Christine
Yes, F-R-A-N-K K-I-T-T-S (Frank Kitts).
4:26
Wayne
Yes right there
4:27
Christine
We would invite him for Christmas parties, because he was the patron of the Wellington Deaf Club.
4:32
Kaz
Right right

0:04
Tony
A long time ago WDS Sportsman of the Year started in 1969 yes right. I think, I'll try to remember. I was succeeding so much in sports. Softball, hockey, I was doing so much playing against hearing teams. My mother was in the committee of WDS at that time, I was not involved. As time went on, Sir Frank Kitts gave me a prize and I was embarrassed. Whose idea was it to make this? The Walton best person or whatever. I was proud too but that’s all. I actually never heard of the idea re sports person of the year. So, my mother was proud of me and that was her son. Later on, it went around to different people who deserved it. I heard there was another cup called Tony Walton. I was in shock - I thought someone had the wrong idea. It’s not Tony Walton, it’s Walton. But really it was mums idea. The recipient names was engraved at the bottom and once it was ‘full’, it’d be good to have an extra wood base at the bottom to continue with the engraving – that’d be nice. However, a new committee decided on a new cup. I had to bite my tongue and it was embarrassing because the cup was called Tony Walton. No, no – it’s my view. Yes, it’s nice for me but it’s not true. The original cup was all mums idea.
1:57
Tony
Walton Cup name, I have no idea when it was given. I think 1969 around about, Sir Frank Kitts - the hearing and Mayor of Wellington, his name is famous for Kitt Park too. He gave this cup to me and we shook hands but during this time there were no interpreters available, just oral. He was WDS patron for many years until he passed. Yes. it was this man. This happened at the town hall, Vivian Street I think. Now it has been demolished but yes I shook his hand there and it was nice. That time the president was Bill Rees – the one with big ears, I remember. Yeah, it was nice.

0:04
Tony
My mother was called L-I-L-L-I-A-N W-A-L-T-O-N (Lillian Walton). She was just this person who kind of pitied me like a baby. I was about 18 or 19 years old at the time and she was on my case - she was really keen to take me to the Deaf club a lot. I wanted to push her aside but she still got involved and joined the committee, and I was shocked. Well done mum. She was very determined to be involved as much as possible. She communicated orally but was easy to lip read, that was just my mum. She was just fantastic. She had a big heart of course. I was somewhat embarrassed. I was in the committee and left in the 1970s when I moved away.
She still continued with her involvement in the committee and she eventually became involved with the New Zealand Association of the Deaf. Her work was voluntary, just liked when she was the secretary of the Deaf club and in plenty of other roles.
So for the NZ Association of the Deaf, there was a discussion about the need to set up three branches in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. She was the new Liaison Officer for Wellington. That was voluntary too! The office was in mums house K-E-M-P-ST (Kemp Street). You know the conference place was there, next to apartments, my mother lived next to there on Kemp street. Yeah it was a voluntary role, not paid. So she was really involved. I was like, leave it but she was still determined. Deaf people contacted her and I was like uhh but she had a heart for Deaf youth. There were problems – she was the Liaison Officer through an agreement with the New Zealand Association of the Deaf. Like Auckland had the first field officer F---, ‘free’ something. That person was hearing and we copied, just like Christchurch who had a new liaison officer. All roles became permanent. That was when Mum withdrew from her role. Lots Deaf people would contact mum. She advocated Telecom and succeeded getting TTY for others. That was mum’s work. That’s her. I remember mum becoming involved with Deaf youth who had problems and she would just help with getting benefits for them. That was her. I was really clueless.

0:06
Shannon
WDS Toilet Seat was set up in 1980. It was for the most popular or regular attendee at Deaf Club during that time. If you were given the toilet seat, you had to put it over your head and wear around your neck for the night.
0:28
Shannon
At our annual Christmas party, it would be given to a new person, and they would wear it for the night.
0:39
Shannon
On the toilet seat it has the record of names and the year it was awarded to people. When the seat was full of engraved names, we discussed what to do next. It was agreed put the seat on a plain wooden board so more names could be engraved on that board. So on the night (at the Xmas Party), the seat would be taken off the board and the person had to wear it for the night. When they were done for the night, the seat was put back on the board.
Before people used to take it home and look after it for one year. Later we decided it would be better to have it in the Deaf Club on the wall. So, the person who won the year before would then decide the new winner if they feel this person has been attending Deaf club regularly. They’d keep the person in mind and announce the winner at the Christmas party. When you wear it and win it you have to write your own name on the back, or you could do a message. It is filled with names of different people and years. At that time the old WDS clubrooms closed, we wondered who would look after it. We decided members would take turns and look after it in their homes. Now, we have our clubrooms so the toilet seat is back here. Members can see and remember. There are plenty of repeats of people winning this. They were like uh oh. One person won this 3 or 4 times in different years! That person was annoyed.

0:04
Pam
I thought I needed to learn about other clubs – I noticed they had had seniors or golden oldies. I wanted to know how many years individuals have been a member for. So, anyway I got the old minute books with beautiful handwriting in there. I went through each page. It was very interesting because it would say in every meeting who would be the new members joining. It wasn't a list or anything, just names of people. So, I took these and set up a roll book with all the names of members, then the new members, the year, and then if they were still a member. I went through and I realised and a lot of them were over 25 years of being a member. I didn’t think about following their age. Many of these people have also been on the committee and worked at the Deaf club. Most of them lived far away like Levin, Featherston, Hutt, various far away place but they all made the commitment to attend events. It was just amazing. If they had no car, someone else would pick them up and bring to Deaf club. So, I decided because my parents were getting old, I thought why not to have something for them. Sometimes they couldn’t make it to the Deaf club at night and all that so I organised an event at my parents’ house. It was just a one-off and for those who were members for over 25 years. But then it slowly died down and no one kept it up. Yeah I did that. But now Deaf Club have a senior group, not really a golden oldies. It’s more like… people who don’t have a job can attend. We meet once a month so we're trying to keep this going. But yes it started with us in my house, and at other places. There were no money for it and we were doing it. But it was my way of thanking them for their commitment over the years to Deaf Club. I was happy to see it continued but unfortunately people left and rejoined as a member so the support fluctuated. They weren’t really supporting the club fully. There were also those who were committed.

0:04
Maureen
At that time in the 70s we had membership cards for those who joined the Deaf club. It had numbers on it, and it meant when they paid the fee and they would receive the card. Some members wanted the cards to allow them to go to the shops and get discounts or have free access to certain things. But this was hard because we had few memberships so it was not very successful for business. We weren’t successful with that, to get free admissions or maybe cheaper tickets to go to the movies. So the membership card would be yearly. At that time we had a gold card, then we would print a blue card for the new year.
1:07
Pam
Really the membership then is the same as now. It is cheaper now. Something like $25 dollars, or maybe it was $20 each. $30 for a family. Same price as now, and people moan about the prices now, that it’s so expensive and truly it hasn't changed. J-S-M-I-T-H (Janet Smith) for example she's 85 and she was born the year when the Deaf club was set up. She joined the club when she was 17 years old then and she has been a member since then. She’s a life member now. She kept paying her yearly fee and she was involved a lot. You know that really surprised me that they committed, they never said they can't afford it, it didn't matter. You know they didn't have good jobs or pay but they committed. They had very strong Deaf hearts.
2:27
Maureen
At that time we would make the membership cost through the constitution rules. Adult members, those who were under 18, and senior member fees would be a bit higher or lower. I can't remember how or why we picked that price we must have followed the cost of living.
3:15
Maureen
We had have late membership fees too. So it the member didn't pay within 3 or 6 months they would have to pay a late fee for a new membership. Plus some members didn't pay for one year. So, if they wanted to come back the following year they had to have paid the last years with a big late fee.
3:53
Maureen
Around about 1970's we had a rule that is a member bought a friend who is not a member to sign the book it meant they could come back 3 times for free with a valid member. After visiting 3 times we would ask them to pay a membership.
4:26
Pam
There would be someone at the door to collect fees if there was a special event. To record names for those outside who would come.

Clive
Wellington Deaf basketball. I started to learn about it when I was at Van Asch School for the Deaf. There were two Deaf people, Tony McGill and Craig Howarth, they were talking about Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch competing against each other in Deaf basketball. I became interested in this conversation and wanted more information. When I finished school and left, I came to Wellington. I asked around, and there was one person who led me to the Deaf Club on Willis Street. This was a small hall. I was in the Deaf Club meeting new people. I asked around about basketball and mentioned that I was keen to be a part of a team. The people told me that there was no team in Wellington. [At the time] there were the NZ Deaf games basketball in Dunedin. However, this was cancelled. I was told that I would be contacted for the games next year. I was excited about playing basketball.
I have been involved in basketball for 35 years. I had a good long relationship with Douglas Magon and Tony Kuklinski. We had strong competitions in the Wellington region. In the NZ Deaf games, we went on to compete against Dunedin, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North. We competed against these teams back in the day. We would also compete on Queen’s birthday weekend.
It was good. At that time, we wore gold and black. The shorts were really short! Nowadays the shorts are longer. It is different. Our Wellington team would also compete against hearing players. We competed against Masterton. We lost by one point in the semifinals. It was a close match. We also went over to Hawkes Bay and competed against hearing players. Manawatu joined the Wellington team for this one. We were short of men.
The next one was Taupō. The Hawkes Bay team joined Wellington for this one, playing against hearing teams.
I also organised the 50th anniversary in 1999. This was in Wellington, at the Deaf Club. There were so many people that came over, and everyone was drinking. I left the party for a bit to bring a car battery. I took the battery out of the car, and put this where the party was. This meant people could drink as much as they wanted, and then sleep. This meant safe driving for everyone involved. Everyone was drinking and it was good. We enjoyed the night. Remember -
Sean
In 2002, I was the team manager for Central District men basketball team. We would travel far to Otaki for training. At the same time, the Palmerston North Deaf basketball and netball team would travel to Otaki to meet us there. This happened every Sunday. We would train again and again. It was a long way. When the basketball finished, we would encourage the women's netball teams to train. We [the men] had to be patient. Once the netball was finished, everyone could finally go home. Coming up to Labour Weekend. Wellington was hosting [the tournament] on Labour weekend. It was the first time in my life where I was the team manager. The whole team got together. The team was strong! We competed against Auckland and thrashed them. It was 88-20… no no, it was 78….
Actually, no sorry… Central District was 88 where Auckland was 20. I remember this. 2002 was a good year for me.
4:28
Clive
Before it was Wellington, and then it got changed to Central District, and now it has changed to Taraura. This is where Deaf basketball is now. There is also basketball in Christchurch this year in November. I want to encourage youth to play.

0:04
Maureen
At the time when I was the secretary, the Deaf Club did not have a newsletter. However I did make a newsletter to put down information on what was happening at the Deaf Club. This would include information on activities and programmes. The programmes were good for Deaf people to know what was going on, and where the activities would take place. At the time, we were on Willis Street. It was an old building we were using for the activities. This was in central Wellington, and we had some Deaf people complain that it was too far. So…. but for some it was successful. There were some people who liked the building.
0:57
Pam
The newsletters back in those days were fantastic. There was a lot of news such as babies being born, people getting married….. And all that…. So there was plenty of good news.
1:11
Maureen
I remember members saying that they preferred it if the newsletter was on white paper, rather than yellow. However, we picked yellow because it was the colour of Wellington. It was Wellington’s colour. Eventually, the change to a white paper newsletter was accepted.
1:59
Pam
The Deaf Club would share news gathered from other Deaf Clubs. But…. most of us paid for the newsletters to come into Wellington…. There were [newsletters from] Wellington central, Auckland, and Christchurch.
All of us from the same school group would read together. We would keep up to date with our friends. We would learn about them [through reading the newsletters] a lot. There were sports in there too. There were plenty of things. Plenty of things. There were more…. Personal things in there. It had news of people getting engaged, or married, and babies… and deaths too. Yeah.

Shannon
In the 1980s, the Ministry of Health and Wellington Deaf Society reached an agreement to rent a building on 280 Willis Street. As you can see behind me, the original building has been demolished. There was one condition to the rental agreement. The building could be rented until the establishment of a motorway. When the motorway was established, WDS moved out. It was 10 years in that building, from the 1980s to the 1990s. Many members remember the time spent here.
0:35
Pam
It was an old building on Willis Street. And erm…. It was…. The path. It was on the government… It was in the path of the motorway. They didn’t want to sell the building, so I think the government bought the building for construction of the motorway to take place. When did it start? I don’t know. They rented out the building for 10 cents per year. That was that…. It was a house. It was an old house. A two-storey one. It had rooms downstairs and steep wooden stairs leading upstairs. The Deaf Club main office was downstairs. Maureen worked in the office room downstairs. When you went upstairs there was a floor you could play bowls on. There were meetings on this floor. It was probably a former lounge? I don’t know. It was a large room. We had Deaf Club there. Upstairs. I remember that. Yeah…. But those stairs, back in the old days, used to be quite steep. The wooden stairs…
2:00
Kaz
Upstairs on Willis Street there was a hall. We would play [table] tennis. I would organise this. There would be matches for singles, doubles, mixed, for the H… Cup. I had a book I would write down in. There was good space for playing this upstairs. It was not bad.
Christine
2:22
There was a wooden floor.
Kaz
There was only one [table tennis] set up.
Christine
Because upstairs was small and it had a wooden floor.
2:26
Clare
In 1983, I had no idea where the Deaf Club was. One of my friends, Jackie Overall, told me that there was a Deaf Club in Wellington. Eventually, I bumped into Pat Dugdale ……. She asked for my name and address. I gave her my name and address. I was like, “Okay….?” So left at that.
Anyways, in 1984 I then received mail. I didn’t really understand it. The sheet said that there was an AGM meeting in 1984. I read the name and everything. I noticed the address and I told my friend that I was going to the Deaf Club. I told my brother to drop me off at Willis Street. This is very old. It wasn’t a big building. It was only two storey. It was very old too. I followed people who were signing into the building. I was amazed. I went upstairs and I had to stand at the very back. I was looking around and I realised that I had never met any of these Deaf people before. I had only met Pat Dugdale before. I was there not for long when all of a sudden a person asked, “Who is interested in joining?” I had no idea what this person was talking about. This person pointed at me and said, “New face”. I was struck. Maureen Tompson explained what he said to me, but I didn’t understand anything. I just nodded, pretending I understood. It was only when I frequently attended that I understood what things meant, such as being on the committee. And then…. As AC secretary I was helping Maureen Tompson. We would help and share the work with each other.
4:14
Sean
Firstly, I would bring drinks. Yes. Secondly, sometimes food was provided. There was the kitchen. It was good, but remember the [building] was small. It was not far from my old school, Te Aro. [The club] was in a good location, but parking was difficult. Sometimes you would have to park a distance away, and walk over. The next time I went to Deaf Club, I would catch the bus. I would then get off the bus at the train station which was not that far away.
4:53
Clare
[When you came into the] Willis Street building, on your left, near the entrance, there would be an office. On your right, there would be like…. A kitchen. There were also toilets on the other side of the kitchen. People would hang around here and chat. This was for like… events.
Upstairs, following the steps that turned, there were two open rooms. These rooms would be for parties, discos, or for children to play in. Whenever the committee had a meeting, we would host it downstairs in the office. It was never upstairs in one of the rooms, it was always downstairs.

0:06
Maureen
At that time, I was helping the Deaf Club. I was the secretary. We had organised a street appeal. This was with…. The Wellington City Council. They gave us permission for a date where we could have a street appeal. There were Deaf volunteers, along with people from the Deaf Children Association, who helped with fundraising. We had raised a lot of money. I can’t remember how much altogether, but we did raise a lot of money….
Yeah…. And we did this in Wellington city. This was on the street. We deposited the money we collected in the bank. The bank would count the money. The bank would do voluntary counting of the money for us.
Uh…. we also did Lower Hutt and Porirua too. We had Deaf people volunteering from these places too.
1:14
Robert
I remember the Wellington city street appeal being the most popular, as well as the easiest in collecting money. At that time… compared to outside of the city such as Lower Hutt… Lower Hutt collected less money. There was even less money collected in Porirua.
1:42
Robert
At one time we had collected $6,000. This was very good at the time. I think nowadays this sort of thing is impossible. Times have changed. Another reason is that people do not carry cash on hand anymore.
2:04
Maureen
Yeah… we had a box from Wellington City Council for the street appeal. We also had our own advertising label, and stickers. If people donated, we would give them a sticker. The sticker was labelled with “Wellington Deaf Society’ for the street appeal. Yeah…. In one year we had boxes made with space for businesses to place their names on. We would have the names of businesses on certain boxes, such as the name of a shop. These boxes would be left on the counter across various shops. People would buy things at the shop, and also place money into the box on the counter. A few days later, we’d go back and pick up the boxes with money in. Yeah…. That was helpful.
Yeah we got boxes from Wellington City Council. We also got a factory made box with the name Wellington Deaf Society printed on. We’d also give labels and stickers out to people who made donations.
3:16
Robert
We had shirts with the title “Wellington Deaf Society” printed on them. We also had yellow buckets too. And also, we had stickers to thank people for supporting us.

Sean
Getting involved in pool… I once got a letter from Wellington Deaf Society. This was in 1990. The letter asked if anyone was interested in playing pool. I was interested so I put my name down and posted the letter back…. This was to one of the organisers. I can’t remember who this person was. It was in the same week that I started playing…. I think it was on a Saturday night. This was in winter. I arrived, and other people arrived too. I can’t remember how many people. This was upstairs in the old Deaf Club. This was upstairs on Willis street. It was a very small upstairs for playing pool. You had to be careful of the walls around you when it was your turn. We would play….
I can’t remember how many people were involved. When I played, I would win constantly. There was another Deaf person who won games constantly. When it came for us to go against each other in the finals…. We had actually gone to the same school. We were friends. His name was Tony.
I remember there was the black 8 ball and the cue ball next to each other. When it came to his turn, he actually made the black 8 ball fall into a hole. I won and got the cup. My friend was devastated. It was the Manson cup I had gotten. We would play pool tournaments every year. I think this was from 1983. I remember this year, and it would go on for 10 years. It stopped in 1993. This was because Wellington Deaf Society had stopped being on Willis Street, and had moved to the Hutt Park Raceway.
As for Manson. This was from a Deaf man named Kevin Manson who donated the trophy. Kevin was involved in the Wellington Deaf community… He was involved in the committee…. He was involved in pool, bowling, and all sorts of different things.
When I won the trophy I hung it up inside my own home. I had this up for one year and then handed this over to another person. We would take turns holding onto the trophy in our homes. I remember playing pool, and I remember the moment when the black 8 ball went into the hole, and how devastated Tony was. We were friends. Good memories.

0:04
Sean
We (Deaf people) set up rugby league in 1988. A Deaf person named Wayne McKail set this up. He set up a Deaf team to go to Palmerston North. This was in…. I think it was September 1988. We all went there, and the Auckland team met us there too. We would go against each other in rugby league. Wellington beat Auckland at this. We were wearing black and white on our jerseys.
The next time we went against Auckland, we had no uniform. We asked, and ended up borrowing uniforms.
When Wayne’s son organised a new uniform, we had black and yellow stripes. We also had a logo too on our uniforms. This was better to have. The next time we had a different uniform, but it was the same coloured stripes. In the third game, we had green stripes. This was for the Central District uniform.
1:21
Rodney
Talking about the history of rugby league with Wellington Deaf Society. I was previously a player for Wellington and Central District.
Christchurch won when we playing in Christchurch. They thrashed us. In the second game, Canterbury won again. In the third game, Canterbury won again. In the fourth game, Canterbury league won again. As for Wellington….
I’ll show you. We then changed it to Central District which was new and nice. This was a new team formed, and for the first game we went against Auckland. We played in Hamilton. This was a five hour drive. We played up until half-time as the game had finished with us thrashing them. This was because the referee didn’t show up. We then were looking forward to going against Canterbury in Blenheim. We ferried across to the South Island and arrived. We were looking forward to it, but as it turns out they thrashed us again! I think the score was maybe something like 76 - 20. Roughly that…. I’m unsure, but they did thrash us. I had gotten 7 tries myself. This is no joke. You can ask the league team. There are also photos. I played half-back. The 7 is perfect as I scored 7 tries!
As you can see in the statue… the Cook Strait line statue…. Canterbury has 3 recorded wins. However, there are two empty places with no wins recorded. I think there should have been an extra engraving on this.

0:04
Tony
You’re asking me about golf. Wellington Deaf Society’s Golf Club. Why had we set this up? This is a good point. It started with the trans tasman games for the Deaf in Australia. The Australians came over and we were all determined to play well. We had people who played golf all across New Zealand, but when it came to Wellington there was no one. I was determined to set up the Wellington Deaf Society Golf Club because why not? I set up and led the club as I was the right person at the time. I am trying to remember…. But it is not 100 % clear to me. Of course…
Why was it the Cook Strait trophy? This was because the Christchurch club would travel up the South Island, and the Wellington club would travel by ferry across the Cook Strait. We would play golf in Picton or the Blenheim golf area. We played this every year… on I think it was
Queen’s birthday? I’m not sure. It was in winter where we would play golf and constantly beat Christchurch at it! They got annoyed.
As for the trophy, I made this. It was small or big, or whatever this size. The braces were premade and I bought this, and put this on the trophy. I made the wood and everything else. That was me! This was way back then.
There were all sorts! It was a good time. We’d go back and forth between Christchurch and Wellington several times. Eventually, we stopped. I stepped down, and it did carry on for a while I think. It then stopped, and then golf was suddenly brought back up north. It would be golf between Auckland and Wellington. We would play back and forth. The cup for this is still somewhere to be found. Somewhere! This cup vanished. I made this one. I don’t know where this ended up. Auckland or Wellington? Wellington definitely lost a few times.
It was a good competition. This worked well, and this is why NZ Deaf golf was set up. It is successful, and it has been running for a few years…. until it stopped?...
As for Wellington Deaf golf, there were several different inscriptions. There was the semi-finalist which meant that you had the best Gross Score. For example, if another player had lost and their handicap was 13, whereas I had a handicap of 36. This would mean I would have a higher score than this player. This player would have to follow equity points… in the semifinal. The best Gross Score would be worked out between myself and the other player. If the other player had a score of 13 lost, I could win with a score of 36. If it was 13 - 13, it would be a challenge.
There was also net gross which is similar….. There were two. I can’t remember the rest. Ray was living in Masterton with his wife A... Both of them played golf, in men and women tournaments, and both of them were committed to the sport.
Ray was in the school for the Deaf a long time ago. He left school and I hadn’t seen him for a while at the Deaf club. He heard about golf and joined. There were also other people who were returning to the club as they were interested in playing golf. It was great, and Ray took home the most wins as the strongest player of all. V…. was a strong player too, whereas I was a beginner. I was improving.
The golf club, which I saw just recently, had a piece which I made and glued onto the cub. This piece fell apart from possible rough handling or something. This was lost. Missing. Maybe golf is cancelled. Finished!

Robert
Wellington Deaf Society had bought land on 133 Hutt Road in Kaiwharawhara. It was around 75,000 something like that. The vision at the time was to build a Deaf Club on the property.
However the land was slightly uphill, not flat. At the time, Transpower actually needed more space. They asked us if they could have half of the land for $11,000. We were happy to section and sell this land off.
It was around…. Maybe it was when the builder realised that it wasn’t going to be easy to build [the Deaf club]. It would have cost a lot, especially building on top of the land. The land was sloped, and at the back was a small road lane. It might have been difficult for car parking. There were not many car parks available. We then realised that it would be better to let go of the land. Most of the time the land was empty. We had a caravan on the land for selling food and coffee. This was for the people who were working in the area. It was about 400 a week. Sorry, no it was 400 a month. I would say that this was better than nothing. However, we had to pay the cost of rates on the other hand. This operation helped.

0:02
Shannon
In the 1990s, Wellington Deaf Society was on Willis Street. The landlord of the building asked WDS if they could pay $1,000 per month. WDS couldn’t afford this, so WDS moved to Hutt Raceway in Lower Hutt. Sir Roy McKenzie bought this space, including the room, office space, and area where all Deaf community members could gather. The Deaf Club was here during that time of 1990 to 1996. During that time, a lot of events were focused on fundraising in order to raise funds to buy a Deaf Club on Marion Street. Some members remember this time period, the fundraising events and the gatherings.
We’ll watch now some of their stories.
1:01
Kaz
The Hutt Racecourse in Lower… Actually, Petone. I was president at that time for two and half years. Oh yes… there was the committee, the treasurer, everyone came together once a month.
1:23
Tony
There was once a horse racecourse here. There was a race for dogs, and then on the outside ring a race for horses. There were also donkeys. We had a lease here, and socials for the Deaf Club would be held here. We also had functions. We had all sorts of things. Right?
There were young people who came together, and we would fundraise for Wellington Deaf sports. There were also meetings here at an old shed. Deaf people would gather in this shed for meetings. It was great. Now, you see behind us, it is all gone.
1:54
Sean
The Hutt racecourse was a result of dire conditions. We had nowhere else to go. It was far. It was in Lower Hutt. This was not the club I was used to. I had to be patient with this change. We stayed there for a while until we finally found a better place and moved.
2:19
Kaz
Willis Street was the first. This got closed down, so we looked all over and found the Hutt racecourse. One Deaf person’s brother Noel Ramsey found this place for free…. The rent was cheap. There was also underground storage we could use.
2:46
Cameron
We had a storage unit which was small and free to use. Next to this unit were the horse races which a lot of Deaf people went to. At that time…. I can’t remember what year but there was a flood which ruined things in the storage.
3:03
Kaz
We would have the same things. Picnics and sports, and what [you have] now.
3:08
Cameron
We then finally moved to Marion Street. It was great!

0:03
Tony
At that time I had just become the president. I am trying to remember exactly where the money came from. Before we were in the old two-storey building on Willis Street. This was for 10 cents a year. This was $1 a year covering 100 years rent. That’s all! This was lovely. People would gather here. Eventually, the building had to be torn down and a new motorway was to be built. We were disappointed, and so we looked around. We then went back to Petone. I forgot the name. It was the racecourse, something like that. We had to hire it. People didn’t really come to this new Deaf Club. As for money… we would fundraise. We weren’t sure where we were going to buy a new club. Before this, I had seen that our finances were plenty. We had over $20,000. This was the balance at the time. I went away for some time, and when I returned I saw that the balance had risen to over $100,000.
Exactly where this money came from, I’m not sure. I believe this might have been through a donation from the Rotary Lions club, and from other people donating the club in their wills. I’m not sure about this. You best talk to Robert as he knows more about this. He is very good with finances. So…. There was another hearing person who told me that they had found a site on Kaiwharawhara Road. I was surprised. The person told me that the section was cheap. I think it was only 30 or 40 thousand. That’s all! The person told me about this and I was unsure. I then had a discussion with the board, and they approved the purchase. A few years later things were not going right. Transpower wanted to buy a section of the land initially…. And then they wanted the full property. It was agreed we’d sell it to them. We got our money back and a little more. It was…. 70 thousand something like that. The amount grew. The reason we had bought the section was that it was closer than…. something like Tawa, Porirua, or Lower Hutt. The city was expensive and yet Kaiwharawhara was cheaper. This is how we arrived at this decision. We wanted to see if it worked. We wanted to see “how it goes”.
Most people preferred having something in the city. We then eventually found something on Marion Street which was successful. How?... I am trying to remember that time. There was Karen and I. Together we advocated, and asked Deaf Aotearoa…. Actually at the time it was called the New Zealand Association of the Deaf. We discussed with NZDA and reached an agreement where WDS & NZDA would each pay 50%. The proposal was presented to our boards. The WDS board approved of this idea. Karen and I then proposed this to the executive board at NZDA, and they were surprised. There were negatives and positives discussed about this deal. In the new year, the shared agreement was approved. We bought this…. And so the executive manager at NZDA did some research into the future and safety of this building. Once the investigations came back with clear results, we were all excited to move in. We wanted to stay on the ground floor.
NZDA actually wanted their offices downstairs. We were arguing about this until it was agreed that NZDA would be upstairs on the middle floor. As president, I wanted WDS to be at the bottom floor for accessibility. It was then agreed that the top floor would be leased out to cover the bills. This was agreed upon.
As for who was in the committee, there was myself and several others involved to make sure we worked with NZDA to get things exactly 50/50 and equal. Especially with running costs. We loved it, and so it went on. That’s it!

0:01
Tony
The Deaf Club building on Marion Street was in association with Deaf Aotearoa. The board at Wellington Deaf Society agreed that we wanted to invite the community to join us in building, painting, and everything involving the building. The great cowboy themed paintings were all done by Shaun Fahey. He was great at drawing and painting this. In the paintings you could spot most of the board members. Shaun drew this.
0:46
As for the building of the bar, this was done by Shane Fenwick, Jamie Kuklinski, and I. We built the bar.
1:01
As for things all around…. The cowboy themed wood pieces were made by Grant Billing. He passed away recently. ….. Karl Chapple, Leith Tangiwai, Jamie Kuklinski and others including Daniel Kuklinski and Wayne Riggs. We all were involved in everything, the painting and tidying up. It was fantastic. We enjoyed building it. Good memories.

0:04
Rodney
There were so many people who had resigned from the sports board. I put my hand up, and got involved. I was happy to help.
And then suddenly it was like, “Oh shit!” As the games were set for Labour weekend, the date was getting closer and closer. I was like, “Oh fuck!”. At that time I was working at Pak n Save. I got off work for two weeks. One week was for helping and focusing on organising for Labour weekend. The other week was for after the weekend, so I could have a break.
Tony KKK told me that we couldn’t have golf for the games. The courses were fully booked. I couldn’t believe it, so I had a look around myself. Turns out there was a golf course available at the Lower Hutt Golf club. I had a discussion with the club and we booked the course. We also managed to book [a venue] for pool too. There was also a venue booked for netball too. This was a relief. This was arranged through an ex-South African woman. I can’t remember her name. Something like D…V? Anyways, she worked for the Wellington admission? She represented New Zealand. She was a skilled player with many goals. It was nice meeting her. She lived in Stokes Valley.
It was hard to find a venue for a social gathering. I looked all over, and drove around to so many places. It was a headache. I would be calling and visiting different places all with no luck. I used the TTY for a bit…. Eventually I found a venue at the university, and booked a venue with them. Thank goodness! Fuck that.
I also organised a raffle. I asked all those involved in sports to take in donations from certain shops like Mitre 10, Bunnings, PaknSave, whatever! Wellington Rugby too. There were plenty of prizes brought together. There were so many good prizes. This was good for the raffle as people would pick out their prizes according to their raffle number. It was fantastic. There were plenty of prizes! Wow…. I’ll never forget this.

0:05
Darryl
I moved to Wellington in 2006, and I would go to the Deaf Club a lot. The Deaf Club had a special license. The special license meant that dates had to be listed, and drinking was only to be on those dates. The selling of drinks would have to be on those dates. This meant that there would be drinks every two weeks, or twice a month. Sometimes it would be once a month depending…. The dates would be listed in advance in planning for one year.
At that time, John Bennett was working. He was great. Previously I had been a bar manager at the Auckland Deaf club. I learnt what was required to be a bar manager. I came to Wellington and was intrigued. Eventually, I said, “Why don’t we have more events? There needs to be more events at the Deaf Club, and more people getting together. We shouldn’t have to worry about what dates Deaf Club should be open. Any time the Deaf Club is open is when the bar should be open in selling drinks. There will be more people coming to the Deaf Club because of this.”
So… I asked the board with a letter if we could have a full alcohol license. This meant people could train in becoming bar managers and we could get a license to keep the bar open more often. We could take turns in shifts in managing the bar.
The board approved of this. In 2008, we went underway with the process of getting a license. There were a lot of things we hadn’t considered, so we managed to cover these things in the process of getting a license. Eventually, the council approved, and so we got our license. The bar managers were myself, James Kuklinski, Shannon Morris, John Bennett, Oliver Ferguson…. And one hearing man. His name was Marcel. Marcel? Yep, Marcel! All of us were good and took turns in keeping the bar open.
There were membership cards back then. You could get a discount of 50 cents off a drink. There were ideas about having the 10th drink as free. It was good!
2:22
Shannon
I remember those times when the Deaf Club had fun activities and events. This is when we would have a lot of people visit. It was a busy time. I remember there were times in the bar area where we realised we did not have enough drinks for the amount of people visiting.
One of us would hurry off to Moore Wilsons down the corner, or there was Toop which was a far drive away. We would collect the drinks and hurry back. As the bar area was really small, there would only be about maybe 3 people at a time. It was really small, so we would be squeezing past each other in the space. It was really small.
I know it was a fun time as there would be a lot of events. I would be standing by the bar and watching from afar. The bar counter was a little bit high, so I could see over people and what they were doing. I was nosy. It was fun for me to watch and to see people from different backgrounds. Some people did not know NZSL, but they came and learnt how to order a drink. Some people were from overseas. There were some people…. where it was their first time seeing a Deaf Club with a Deaf person working in the bar. There were really good relationships with these people. There were heaps of events, fundraising, fun activities…. There are too many for me to think of, but it was fun!

0:02
James
At that time, I remember I was the president of WDS 2006 - 2010, for four years. Our committee at the time had discussed and agreed that we wanted to buy a pool table. The old one we had had kick out stands and it would be wobbly. We wanted to buy one. One committee member organised this through Trade me. He looked all over and eventually one was found in Masterton. I had a trailer with high walls. Two of the committee members joined me in picking up the pool table.
When we arrived, we saw that it was actually a big pool table. My trailer was a bit smaller. We worked out that it wouldn’t fit. We had to put the pool table directly on top of the high walls of the trailer.
The bottom of the trailer was light, whereas we had a heavy thing on top of the walls. The walls were wobbly under the weight of the pool table. We drove off, and by the time we reached Remutaka Hill it was windy. It was a bit windy and the trailer was seriously wobbling. As we reached the peak, and then made our way down the hill, we continued driving straight and arrived at WDS on Marion Street. Whew!
It was heavy! One person, one committee member, was skinny. He was lifting the table quite hard, and so was I! We heaved the table into the space. We finally set up the table, and all WDS members were happy. This new table was way better than the old broken down one.
We would use the pool table for games like knockout. You could win prizes through this game. We would also invite Manawatu Deaf Society to come over and compete with us. Wellington Deaf Society would head over to their club too to compete. It was good. All of us were happy with being able to play pool. It was interesting.
Clive made a wooden cover for the pool table. The cover would be used to protect the table. If there were social events, the cover would be placed over the pool table so that food could be laid out. It was simple.

0:10
Theresa
I was involved in the Wellington Deaf Youth group. This was from 2006-2008. At that time there was a big project which involved organising the 3rd National Deaf Youth camp. This was a huge job, however we were fortunate to have many people interested to be a part of the committee.
I think there were around 10 - 16 people… who were determined and committed in organising a camp. How did this happen? I remember it must have been the Auckland or Christchurch Deaf youth group that asked Wellington Deaf youth if we were interested in organising this camp. Some of my friends put their hand up and were keen to be involved. The first meeting was held over coffee at the L’affre cafe in Wellington. We all sat around and asked questions. We had people from the previous organising committee of the 2nd National Deaf Youth camp with us, so we asked them questions. We asked what it would be like, and what we would need to do.
We thought about this for 1 to 2 hours through coffee and chatting with each other. In the end, all of us agreed we were confident to give it a go! We had two years to plan the camp, and there were plenty of things to do. I can’t remember exactly how much we fundraised in total. However, it was a lot of money. It was around twenty thousand dollars.
We did fundraising. We did plenty of BBQs at the Warehouse…. I remember in Lyall Bay and Petone. There was a lot of volunteering for the BBQs. We would pick up the sausages from The Mad Butcher. There was plenty of bread donated from the supermarket. At that time it was easy. There was plenty of support which was great. We also had plenty of events at the Deaf Club.
We had a Wild West night. A cowboy themed night to fundraise. We had an auction with plenty of different things donated from businesses and shops. I remember there was a donation of amazing jewelry. We fundraised a lot of money from this. My husband was actually the one who bought the jewelry haha! Craig Becker and I were the MCs for that night. It was a cool night. It was a lot of fun with the auction, games, chatting…. We also had some bingo nights. We had a Halloween night. The committee had great skills in organising events. We organised the fundraising.
We also applied for grants too. The planning of the camp itself. We had planned five days of camp. The camp was to be based at Camp David, in Hawkes Bay. It was really great to be involved. Darryl and I co-lead the camp.
The youth group continued after the camp had finished, and then the responsibility was handed over to another group of youth.

0:05
Jared
I think I replaced Tony Kuklinski. He had enough of being president. I replaced him, and became known as the “Events President”. I set up events such as Jello wrestling, halloween, fear factor…
0:22
John
There was fear factor. Someone had come up with the idea to play a game, based on the TV series of the same name. There was a lot that we copied from the TV series. We made our own “Deaf version”. It was small and simple. There was one game where there would be bowls set up on a table, and you didn’t know what was inside those bowls. You would roll the die, and open up a bowl following the number you got from the die. You would do this for two or three times. You would drink or eat whatever was in those bowls. You would roll the die and be shocked to get “3 in one” sometimes. There would be chilli involved, and it would be hot to eat. Fortunately, all of the contents of the bowls were blended well enough. Everyone would watch you as you drank/ate whatever was in the bowl. If you were still okay after this experience, this would mean you succeeded. You would be standing there, and then suddenly it’s like…. “Hang on, you can feel something coming up inside your throat.” The chilli inside your neck would rise in temperature, and it would feel unbearably hot! You would need someone to dash to the shops because you needed to drink milk to deal with it. This person would come back with a carton of milk, and I couldn’t care how much milk there was. I wanted it all! I think I had chocolate milk or strawberry milk. After drinking all that milk you would still feel a tingling sensation and then it would go away.
“Fuuuuuccckk that was hot!” People would be like, “Your face looks more red now!” The chilli would be hot and it would be embarrassing. In the second game, I think you had to sit inside a pool.
2:37
There would be chains around you in the pool. You had to find the key to unlock yourself free from the chains. It was good. I was lucky enough to pass this challenge. I was in the third round of games, the finals, and I thought I was going to win. They would ask us, “You ready?”
We dove straight in, and they revealed that we had to eat…. I think it was the liver of chickens, or something like the heart of a chicken. The only people left in the finals were Darryl and myself. I came in second place because I ate so slow. Darryl came first because he ate everything so fast. It was rough and chewy. There was no water or anything. You had to eat it straight as is. I saw Darryl was going back and forth in the lead. I stopped the game and had to congratulate him. He won. I’ll never forget this. It was a great memory.
3:30
Jared
I think most people came along on Friday nights. There would be events on Saturday nights. Sometimes there would be events on both nights in one weekend. I think it was because you wanted to wind down on a Friday night, and there were also cheap drinks. You would come along, and wind down. You would be in some events and play things.
3:53
I set up jello wrestling in the Deaf Club. It was in the cowboy entertainment area of the club. There would be wrestling right there! There would be an inflatable pool and we would chuck jelly into the pool. Grant wrestled and there were some Deaf involved in this. There were some hearing people involved in the wrestling as well.

0:11
Darryl
The shield was really small. We started with this. There were already some engravings into the shield from previous winners. The first winner was in 2011. This was when poker was set up. It would be in the Deaf Club. We would have folding tables set up. It would be random. There would be some new players. There would be some players who knew what to do. We would start with a warm up, before getting into the games. We have now passed 10 years. I play every year. It is an annual tournament. Previously, we did not have a Deaf Club so we would do it in the homes of people. This kept the poker championship alive throughout the years. Today, it’s 2023. We can have a poker table when we’d like. I contacted a life member of WDS, Tony Walton, and asked him if he could make one. He responded with enthusiasm and could make one for us. He made one in his workshop at home. It was lovely. The colour of the table was yellow. Well actually… the colour is a little bit orange but it doesn’t matter!
Yellow is unique and you can look at knowing that it belongs to the Wellington Deaf Society. There was a second table Tony was willing to make two. This was to save costs rather than to have one expensive table. As for the second table, Tony made it with a trolley! This meant you could easily manoeuvre the table. This was great! The second table was in a green colour. It was fantastic and we’ve been using it ever since. We’ll see how we go.
1:58
Yep. So… going into the Wellington Deaf Society Poker Championships we had to decide how it would work…. With who… and what. It was decided that members of WDS could participate. Non-members of WDS could participate too. This was fine. However, these non-members could not win with their names engraved on the shield. The shield was only for WDS members. Non-members could win, but it was more about who was the first member to win. This member would have their name engraved on the shield. However, these days I’ll try to encourage non-members to become members. These people can join as members and play on. This allows for more consistency. Also this initiative encourages more people to become members of WDS.
2:48
Renee
A while ago there was a poker event. This was in 2011, and was set up by the Wellington Deaf  Club. This was a regular thing with different events every year. This was good fun. So…. When I came along to the Deaf Club it was funny for me to see everyone else had brought hats and glasses to “keep cool”. You didn’t want anyone to catch you off-guard as this would mean someone could easily win. We all wanted to keep it normal. Some people had joker faces. Once all the cards were dealt and it was time for a “pay in” to continue playing the game. If you were not playing, you could watch for free. You would “pay” to continue playing the game. It didn’t matter whether the amount was big or small. It would be down to the last person standing who won. I was the first winner back in 2011. I was shocked, and I laughed at this. I was given prize-money, but I can’t exactly remember how much it was… haha. This was a long time ago. These are good memories from the Wellington Deaf Club. I was playing against men back then. I was the only woman. Since then we’ve had regular tournaments with fun games. However, back then it was serious with time-keeping and the amount being raised.

0:04
Sara
In 2012 the Deaf Club was at Marion Street. The roof had a leak back then, and all of us Deafies were shocked to find that the repairs would cost 40 thousand dollars to fix. Deaf Aotearoa would cover half of this bill, and WDS would cover the other half. At that time it was a shared building. It was easy for Deaf Aotearoa to pay their side of the bill. Whereas for WDS we were running out of funds. As a result of this, there were five of us that set up a sub-committee. We would fundraise for our half of the bill through different events.
One of the events was a “women-only dinner night” at the Deaf Club. I organised this. All of the women had to dress in pink and glitter. I asked three Deaf men if they could please cook up a roast for all of the women that night. The men were reluctant to cook for 25 people. I went out and collected free chicken, food, and alcohol. I would visit the shops and collect all of this. All of the women would each pay money. We would gather in the Deaf Club where there were special things laid out.
There were three Deaf men who were stressed cooking up a roast. I think I remember there were three roast chickens. The chickens were cooked at homes of various people and then brought to the Deaf Club. The club only had one oven, so food would be cooked in this. Dessert was also made and served. Once all the food had been cooked and served, the women participants could request a massage for a dollar a minute. The women could take their pick as to which man was to massage them. If the massage went on for ten minutes, it would be ten dollars. All of the women were excited and one of the three men was quite a popular choice!
I won’t tell you who this was, but he was certainly popular! We also had foot spa massages set up. The Deaf women could sit down together and enjoy a foot spa massage. It was a lovely night, and we raised around 700 dollars alone. The food was free, and the women each paid 20-25 dollars. The amount raised helped towards the bill of repairing the roof. We fundraised quite a bit, as it took some time to reach the amount required. Fortunately, we also had a grant to help cover the repair costs. The roof was finally fixed!
However, not long after the repair took place we had to sell the Deaf Club. This was because of the Christchurch earthquakes. After this happened…. Around 2012, the price of insurance [for the building] shot up by seven thousand dollars. The WDS board was stressed by this. We had to fundraise to cover the cost of insurance, but we weren’t sure where this income would come from. The building had three storeys, and on the top level the tenants had moved out. We were essentially losing income. It was decided that we had to sell the building. This was a really sad decision. Looking back, these were good times! 

Cameron
0:00
WDS at that time had a Halloween fundraiser, or something like this.
0:08
Tony
There was a coffin, and there was also a machine that blew out smoke.
0:15
Cameron
There was a machine that blew out smoke. This was not good. We laughed at this. We had set up a space in the club with the machine blowing out smoke.
0:24
Tony
We actually didn’t realise that there was an alarm overhead that was going off because of the smoke. All of us, Deaf people, were unaware of this.
0:32
Cameron
And then something strange happened. We saw the flashing lights of a siren from outside the club. Someone told me to have a look. I looked around and suddenly I bumped into firemen with their hoses ready to put out a fire!
I was flustered. I was like, “Ermm….. Erm, come with me.”
The firemen [saw what was going on inside the club] and said nothing. There was thick smoke building inside, so we went and blocked the smoke alarm on the ceiling. We were nice, and were like, “Have a nice day!”
1:00
Cameron
There was no fine. However, if you did a similar thing three times in one year then you would be met with a fine. It was something like $600 each…. What the fine costs these days, I’m not sure. I enjoyed that time, but I was so embarrassed!

0:03
Cameron
I was president of WDS back in 2013 to 2015. A person named Michael Hope gave me something nice and awesome. It featured different cartoons. He was fantastic. He was from Christchurch. I appreciated the gift, and we stored it in order to preserve the history.
0:39
Cameron
Talking about the drawing… it was awesome because it featured the handshape for “W”. There was another drawing I liked. In this drawing, the shape of the letter “W” was the face of a building. It was awesome…. I mean, why not??
1:04
Cameron
Talking about the logo featured in the drawings…. I viewed the drawings at the time and thought nothing of it. Now guess what? The current logo looks almost identical to the ones I saw in the drawing back then. I was gobsmacked. Who said the logo would turn out to be the same? It was fantastic, I like that.
1:26
Cameron
A dream I wish to be true is the fancy Rolls Royce featured in the drawing. The handshape of “W” positioned on the car. I wish this dream came true.
1:40
Cameron
You know when you are at the airport and you see the “Wellywood” sign? This is boring. Instead, it should be the handshape of “W” on the hill. Come on Deaf Aotearoa! NZSL week is around the corner. Remember that next year it is 2024, I’m looking forward to it!

0:03
Anton
I designed this logo, yes. I remember the Wellington Deaf Society once had a competition. I thought, “Why not?”. I submitted my entry into the competition. The first design was very flash, with a fern-like shape. This was because I tried to make something…. abstract. This was inspired by the design of Gallaudet University’s logo. The sign for “Gallaudet” influencing the shape of their logo. I thought we needed a visual design like this too.
I wanted a logo that reflected the sign name of Wellington, much like Gallaudet’s logo. The sign for Wellington is this. I wanted to try get the design to reflect the shape and movement of the hand. The design went through various stages.
I then submitted the design, and I was shortlisted. They picked my design and I was surprised as an Australian to have been chosen. This was nice. They asked me to improve several things on the design. An example of this was to pick a different colour. The original design had the colours green, yellow, and black. They asked me to only have the design in yellow and black. I was okay with this. I followed their design requirements. They wanted the design to be less abstract and more literal. I thought about this for a while and I wanted the proper handshape featured. This is why the design is like this.
1:05
But I then asked myself how I would be able to show the movement of the sign? Would I need to draw a vague outline around the shape? I wanted to show the actual movement of the hand going back and forth, between left and right. I drew a design that reflected this, and it worked. However, at this stage, the design just looked like the handshape of “W” moving back and forth. This could be anything like…. Weather or Wellington. I needed the design to be more literal.
I then thought about what is unique to Wellington is the harbour. You know Wellington from its harbour. This is why I followed the shape of Te-Whanganui-a-tara in the design. It is also relevant to the fact that all Wellingtonians live around the harbour. This is relevant to the Deaf Club. All Deaf people from around the harbour come to the Deaf Club. The logo was designed with this in mind.

0:15
Theresa
Yeah… I was on the committee at that time. This was between 2010 - 2015. At the time, there were a lot of discussions about the building. I worked with Robert, and finances, and we could see that there was not enough income at the time. There were plenty of things to be paid for. The building also needed maintenance. Plenty of repairs were needed. The roof had leaks. The roof needed repairs, but this needed serious fundraising. We were strapped for cash. There were also rates, insurance…. There was also the earthquake building rating. The rating was a bit low, and we know that in the long term the building would need strengthening for earthquakes. We did not have the money for this.
We called a SGM, and as a community we came together to discuss three different options. I remember the first option was to rent out the clubroom, or the second option was to keep things as they were, and try to find the money. There was also the third option of selling the Deaf Club. We discussed and the first option was preferred. We wanted to see how we would go with this. I organised a meeting with a real estate agent. The agent searched for a prospective tenant, and this went on for about 6 months. There was no interest, and there were no offers coming through. This led to another discussion and we realised that we had to sell the building. We were in partnership with the Deaf Association at that time, and I think the building was sold within 6 months.
We got the money from the sale and we put this in the bank. We looked around for another place and this took longer than expected…. So yeah.

Shannon
The Deaf Club on Marion Street was sold, and after this happened there was a strong sense of community. We would take turns organising meet ups in different pubs. Around the same time, membership was free because members value the Deaf Club. This initiative was to try to encourage people to get involved in these meet ups as much as possible. There was no longer a “second home” we could all go to, you know? We would set up events in certain pubs. community rooms, or at clubs. We would book these spaces.
Did Deaf community members ever feel that these places were their “second home”? No. After a while, we finally found a second home here in the Waiora Hub. We are in partnership with five other clubs. Each of the other clubs have different backgrounds. Some are focused on sports, athletics, or rugby. Our club is different as we’re a community-social focused club. Our club has different principles to the other clubs that share this space. However, all of the clubs, including ours, share the same vision for the space.
0:55
Anton
How did we find this space? At the time when we were looking around for a new place, we tried the idea of using a bowling club. However, this was in the wrong location. It was a bit too far. It was hard to find a good location for us Deaf people. One day in the newspaper, there was a section that was focused on the Kilbirnie club. The Kilbirnie club was a sports/rugby club, and it also had other clubs under its name.
I saw this and was interested in the idea. From there, I tried to look for other clubs in this area that had the same idea of sharing a space. I found this hub. At the time, this hub was being built. I reached out to one person and asked if Wellington Deaf Club could join the space as we were interested. The person I reached out to was enthusiastic about this.
At the time, the plans for the building had changed a bit. The development of a new building was scrapped, and a new design was in the process around the same time we connected with the other clubs for this building. There were five of us, five clubs, that had discussions. There was actually one more, a softball club. However, this club pulled out. The five of us had discussions and found that it worked out well. Each club could operate at its own time ie. days, weekends, and mornings. The Deaf Club was unique as we only needed the space at night. This worked out well. All of the clubs worked together and that is how we found and established ourselves in this space.
The Deaf Club finally had its own home here [in this space].
2:09
Darryl
I was on the board at that time. Back then, we had two decisions. The first decision was whether to go into agreement with the other clubs (AMPSCI) using the space. The second decision was how much we would contribute towards this. The building was worth 4 million dollars. We needed each of the clubs to contribute. Exactly how much each club could contribute was needed to be worked out.
Our board recommended $100,000 as the contribution. We wanted to keep some of the money earned from the sale of the Deaf Club on Marion Street. The building on Marion Street was sold for $400,000, and we did not want to put all of this towards the new building.
We recommended $100,000 to the members (other clubs in agreement) and a special general meeting was called. A SGM was organised in Lower Hutt, on High Street. This was in one corner cafe. It was to our surprise that there were at least over 30 Deaf people there at the meeting. It was good.
I had to share the information that day. The positives and the negatives about the agreement of the new building. I explained the proposal in the meeting, as well as the board’s recommendation to contribute $100,000.
I was actually shocked because all of the people who attended the meeting actually wanted this to go ahead. This was amazing. However, there was one person who abstained from voting. Everyone wanted this to go ahead, which was positive news. I was relieved. From there, we moved forward planning our second home.
Anton and I were in meetings about the agreement with other clubs, and we would both report back to members for further discussions and feedback. We planned all of this, and finally the space came to life. We are really grateful to have a second home.
4:08
Shannon
After the Deaf Club was brought to this space, members then had to start paying membership fees. The funds collected from fees could then be used towards our contribution to the Waiora Hub.
We chose this area in Johnsonville because plenty of Deaf people live in the area. There are advantages to this area, such as ease of access with transport. So far, this building has been accessible to all people.
The feeling of a “second home” is still not here, but all of the Deaf people are relieved to know that the club is only in one space.
We have cupboards with some of our trophies and history on display. There is also information on NZSL on display. The other cupboards have things from the other clubs we are in agreement with. I hope that in the future it will become clearer that our club is totally different from the other sports clubs. This place actually works well for everyone to gather. There is a football field outside. We use this for sports, and the children can play on this. The club is so close to the train and bus. This place is easily accessible, and it has been a good building to use so far.
5:27
Anton
What you see behind me…. The building was bought with half of the funds coming from Wellington City Council, and the other half from the 5 clubs. However, all of the clubs needed to fundraise to match our half. We fundraised through what you see behind me. We reached out to many people, Deaf and hearing, to ask if they would like to be sponsors.
We started with the bronze, silver, and gold lists of sponsors. We have different names, for example we have Deaf Aotearoa down here. The Manawatu Deaf club is over here, and the Canterbury Deaf club is over here.
We also have the names of Deaf families who live in this area on this wall. These are all our sponsorships. As we own a part of this club, we helped to fundraise. This is our club, and our home.

Anton
How did the NZSL signage come into place? The concept, we all agreed on, was that this space would be trilingual. This building should have Te Reo Māori, NZSL, and English. We wanted this space to be fully accessible no matter which of the 3 languages you use. This is how the concept came into being.
Also…. Examples of this can be seen in the signage for the toilets, the lift, the boardroom, the kitchen. Anywhere we knew would have a name would have its sign showing Te Reo Māori and NZSL. We did ask if the NZSL dictionary team at Victoria University could be contacted to make sure the right NZSL signs were used on the signage. So yeah….. This was good. The signs look beautiful. This makes Deaf people feel like they are at home when they see the trilingual signage. It is not just “English”, my language is a part of this space too. This is my home too.
1:30
Anton
How were Deaf people involved in the design of this building? I remember a good story. Back then, we were advocating for the need of a good Deaf space. We wanted to make sure that there was plenty of space, not a space that was cramped.
We needed a space where everyone could have space, and yet still socialise. So….. this is how the discussions took place. I remember the first design for this building was quite narrow and long. I was concerned about this. We needed a wider space. This was so that we could make sure people had plenty of room to sit.
However, fortunately, the person in charge, from Wellington City Council, was replaced. The new person looked into the designs and felt that something was wrong. I asked this new person whether this building could be extended. The building could have a narrow first floor, and a wider second floor. Previously, the design was for a standard building. The top floor was not extended to make more room.
I asked for a wider space on the top floor, which meant that we could extend the space if we needed to.
The person from WCC investigated this, and found that several questions were missed early in the design process. I reached out to this person constantly, and eventually I was invited to meet with this person. I got the blueprint, and explained, in person, the need for a wider design again.
The person from WCC eventually understood what I had been trying to show, and accepted the idea for a wider space on the top floor. From there, the design was changed, and we finally had more space. This is a Deaf concept.
I also shared an architecture resource from Gallaudet University. I showed the architecture, the concept of Deaf space, and how lighting was important. We wanted to make sure that there were no dark corners, and ensure there was even lighting all around. We tried our best to follow this design. This is why the Deaf Club has more lighting and everything.