NZSL Classes with HEART

During lockdown over March - April HEART hosted a series of online NZ Sign Language classes with Merge NZ. This came about through Change Agent Lyalle who connected her friend Tui to The HEART Movement. Tui who has a love for NZSL expressed her interest in facilitating NZ Sign Language Classes with HEART. HEART was willing to support a new initiative as a way to support connection across all relationships and to welcome a new Change Agent with so much passion and love for connecting.

There was a lot of interest online for the classes once they went up on social media, in the end the classes were regularly attended by 16 participants twice a week over 4 weeks with a waiting list for future classes. Those who did the classes said they did not know of HEART before they did the classes however at the end of the 4 weeks they understood HEART’s kaupapa and were grateful for the space provided by HEART to learn. At the end of the four weeks the participants had a reflection space and talked about the ways relationships among other things had been enhanced by learning NZSL.

For Roimata learning NZSL has been an opportunity for her whānau to connect and communicate with each other in a new way. She has been using sign language at home with her whānau and one of the outcomes she has noticed is how it “takes the tone down” in her household. Learning NZSL to connect with whānau was also a motivation for Trish. She was using hand signs to connect with her 2 year old moko before the classes therefore learning NZSL was an opportunity to further this connection as well as to learn an official language of Aotearoa.

Many of the participants expressed having wanted to learn NZSL for some time to be the initial motivation for taking up the classes. For Irene, having just completed an ESOL paper, it provided a real understanding and experience of learning another language - “ (to) practice what I preach” that is beneficial for her career path ahead. 

All of the participants thoroughly enjoyed the classes provided online and there are plans for the next phase of learning NZSL with HEART. A special ngā mihi nui to Tui from all the participants and from HEART, as she drove these classes and even provided a space for practicing and make up classes for those who missed classes - what a champ!

Ngā mihi nui Tui and welcome to HEART!