International Day of Sign Languages

International Day of Sign Languages is celebrated across the world on September 23 – this year the theme is “No Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights”. The date was proposed to the UN in 2017 to commemorate the establishment of the World Federation of the Deaf in 1951 and was first celebrated in 2018. It is part of the International Week of Deaf People, which has been celebrated since 1958.

“According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are more than 70 million deaf people worldwide. More than 80% of them live in developing countries. Collectively, they use more than 300 different sign languages.” (source)

In Australia, the Deaf community primarily use Auslan, which has “…two main dialects—a Northern (used in New South Wales and Queensland) and Southern (used in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania) dialect.” (source) These two dialects are a result of the two major schools for the Deaf being established in Sydney and Melbourne  and the differences in signing of their Deaf founder/teachers. (source)

Officially recognised as a legitimate language in a white paper on the languages of Australia in 1987 (source), the first dictionary of Auslan was published on April 13 1989, and in 1991 it was recognised as an official language by the Australian Government. According to Auslan Signbank (a multi-media, online edition of that original dictionary), “Auslan …evolved from the sign languages brought …from Britain and Ireland” in the nineteenth century, with modern Auslan evolving “…from forms of [British Sign Language] BSL used in the early 1800s”. (source)

Prior to colonisation, among the hundreds of languages spoken by Aboriginal communities, sign languages were also in use; work is being done to preserve and maintain as many of these languages as possible both on country, in schools and online. (source, source) “The signed languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures vary greatly from one another and are quite different from Auslan in that they are largely used as gestural-visual representations, or substitutions, of the associated spoken languages.” (source)

Auslan in the Collection – a sample:

• Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics (available online)
• Honours Thesis: "How do I connect?" Identifying the motivators, enablers and barriers for adult learners of Auslan (article link)
• Handshape flashcards (location: Mawson Lakes Library - Pedagogies in Practice ; Black 419 HAFL)