Let’s recognise amazing organisations and individuals in Aotearoa doing great things to promote and preserve the language and celebrate all the excellent mahi and successes together!
Hi! My name is Jon Tai-Rakena. I am the Deaf NZSL Week hero for 2023!
NZSL Week ambassadors Brad Watson from The Hits, Maria Foy from Happy Mum, Happy Child and I can’t wait for all New Zealanders to give signing a go from Monday 8th to Sunday 14th May 2023.
So, whether you’re just starting out on your New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) journey, or you are a pro ready to teach it to everyone you know, or if you’re somewhere in-between, together we can help NZSL thrive!
Why it is important to help NZSL thrive? Because NZSL is a beautiful living and evolving language. NZSL enables the Deaf community to thrive and break down barriers. NZSL is for everyone.
We are excited to promote our treasured NZSL to all Kiwis, and we are looking forward to celebrating everyday Deaf Kiwis.
So, put your hands up if you’re ready to sign with us! 🙌🏽
Hands UP if you’re ready to sign with us!
We’re so excited to be announcing our 7 minutes of signing challenge happening this May during New Zealand Sign Language Week!
It’s simple, from the 8th to the 14th of May, we’re challenging you to get involved in signing. You might simply challenge yourself to learn 7 signs, that’s 1 sign a day, or you could push yourself to try out the seven minutes of signing each day throughout the week – 7 minutes where you turn your voice off and put your NZSL skills to the test!
You can sign with your friends, colleagues or in the classroom, the choice is yours! All we ask is that you give it a go! To learn more about NZSL Week, this years theme or events happening near you, head to NZSLWeek.org.nz
Hands up if you’re ready to sign with us! 👋🏻👋🏽👋🏾 We are thrilled to introduce you to this year’s New Zealand Sign Language Week ambassadors, Brad Watson (@bradwatsonnz) and Maria Foy (@happymumhappychild), as well as our new look logo for NZSL Week 2023. We’re determined to bring signing out to the masses and together we can make New Zealand Sign Language thrive! New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week is fast approaching, and our team have been working tirelessly to bring Kiwis another jam-packed week of celebration, opportunity and awareness for our incredible language. So, keep your eyes peeled for more updates and announcements as we lead into the week (Monday 8th – Sunday 14th May).
6 February 2023
Hands up if you’re ready to sign with us! 🙌🏽 We are thrilled to introduce you to our hero for this year’s New Zealand Sign Language Week – Jon Tai-Rakena! Jon is passionate about teaching NZSL to anyone and everyone, from whānau to neighbours to friends and everyone in between, and is also a regular TikToker – you can find him over on the platform as @learnnzslwithjon. 🤟🏽 We’ve loved getting to know Jon and discover more of his journey. He shared a heart-warming story with us about how his grandma learnt sign language and taught him as a Deaf child so he could communicate with his family. Jon’s grandma is a very important person to him, as she provided the “bridge”, as he said, to his hearing family. That’s what this year’s New Zealand Sign Language Week is all about, coming together to all learn signing, whether we are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or hearing! Because together we can make New Zealand Sign Language thrive. 💜 We can’t wait to bring you more exciting updates for this year’s awareness week, so keep those eyes peeled! 👀
