Aboriginal Sign Language Forum 2024

• Event lasts 5 hours 30 minutes

Organised by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy, with the support of the University of Sydney Diversity and Inclusion team and the DVC Indigenous Strategy and Services Media Team, this event aims to bring together Aboriginal sign language experts, educators, linguists, researchers, and community members, to look at ways we can expand the space of Aboriginal Sign Languages and its benefits not just to deaf but also to hearing indigenous and non indigenous people.

With the UN declaration of both the ‘Decade of Indigenous Languages’ and the ‘International Day of Sign Languages’ it’s an important opportunity to explore how Aboriginal Sign Languages can exercise its vitality in a modern context and combat the challenges of Colonial Sign Languages.

With research indicating the link between the wellbeing of a language and its users is a fundamental need and human right some 43 % of Aboriginal and Torres Strait have some degree of deafness so investigating the potential of Indigenous Sign Languages is crucial.

The Forum will look at what is new in the area of Aboriginal Sign Language, focusing on international and domestic research on Indigenous peoples and sign languages. This event will feature deaf First Nations presenter by Melanie McKay Cody, renown Aboriginal Sign Language linguist Jennifer Green, Dr Ryan Al - Natour, Prof John Gilroy and Joanna Aguis of Aboriginal Deaf Services.

The in-person event and the live streaming will be Auslan Interpreted and Live Transcribed.

GTGhis event is sponsored by Convo Australia and the Australian Sign Language Interpreters and Translators Association (ASLITA)