www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 MAN CHANTS KARAKIA High school students from throughout NZ are in Wellington for the annual Youth Parliament. It's a proud moment for Dean Buckley. He's amongst the country's top students. Dean's profoundly deaf. He's struggled through his high school years. Finally, his talent's recognised. INTERPRETER: As you can see, this is me. I'm Dean. When you see me on TV and you hear an interview about me, there are lots of things from my past; lots of problems I've had. But that doesn't mean I'm Deaf. It doesn't mean I'm disabled. I'm me. I'm just me. Don't judge me, because I already judge myself. FUNKY MUSIC Dean's in his senior year at Kelston Boys' High School in Auckland. INTERPRETER: At high school, my role is prefect. And I'm also on the board of trustees. I never thought I could do any of that. You know, I didn't think this would happen to me. I just wanna show my school, my community, and basically everyone in the world what I can do. TEACHER: What you have to do is look... Dean's studying maths, physics, geography and English. He has an interpreter in the classroom, but his ability to take in what the teacher is saying relies on those interpreters. INTERPRETER: Sometimes I do get frustrated in school because... it's difficult to focus on the teacher and the interpreter and my workload on my desk. What a hearing person can do is hear and write at the same time, whereas a Deaf person can't. I have to either watch the interpreter or the teacher, or watch my work. So if I were to take notes, I would have to wait for the interpreter to stop signing and then write the notes, and then go back to see what they're signing, and it's very hard for the interpreter to remember what has been said while I'm writing. As backup, Dean photographs the teachers' notes, downloading them on to his computer at home. TEACHER: So what happens when you have the word 'projected'? 'Projected' means it's going to be there, so it hasn't started yet. They've planned for it. I have a regular interpreter there. Um, but I need an interpreter` I need a teacher with more understanding of` of Deaf` of Deaf students. They need to understand that our English is not the same as theirs. And that sometimes the... interpreters' language isn't at the same level as mine. And so it does become a bit hard. So we do need interpret` more skilled interpreters ` skilled in English and maths. You know. Um,... and that would actually help under` help my understanding of the subjects. Dean puts in a lot of hours with his homework. He just wants to do so much with his life. I just don't know how he's got the energy to do it. He'll be awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. He's done a lot of all-nighters and literally falling asleep in class from just trying to, you know, trying to succeed. On a normal school day, generally Dean comes home and goes to sleep and wakes up generally around 7 o'clock. And then he's cracking into his homework, and he does that day in, day out. Usually passes out with his laptop in front of him,... (CHUCKLES) and then wakes up next morning, and the cycle starts again. So, yeah, he's really driven. He just looks at something and decides he wants to do something, and pretty much it, really. I think it's because he's had to always fight for everything. I mean, just to keep up with the mainstream students now, he has to work 100 times harder than they do. Everyday things we take for granted, he struggled with, and he had to work extremely hard to get it. From the day he was conceived, he's had an extremely hard life. GENTLE MUSIC These` These are all Dean's files. Dean was born deaf ` the result of Goldenhar syndrome ` a rare congenital condition that often causes incomplete development of the eyes, ears, face and spine. GENTLE MUSIC CONTINUES The first few months was in and out of hospital. He would catch anything in the air, he had pneumonia, and they did some tests and found he had a heart murmur. He had two different ears ` um, one hadn't formed properly; he had a heavy head ` he couldn't hold his head up till he was 6 months old. He's had a ton of surgeries. He's been under anaesthetic so many times I couldn't even begin to tell you what they were for any more. Doctors attempted a cochlear implant, but have concluded Dean will never be able to hear. We used to have people staring at him, and he was aware of all that. And I think you have to have a pretty strong personality. You have to be able to let it go and not let it affect you. You know, I did have a problem with my body image, with my personality and how I learnt,... you know. And now I just use it more. You know, I'm far more accepting of myself, of who I am. Because I always used to think people were judging me. It just makes him fight even harder to want to be like everyone else, and I don't believe he should have to. If I want to change who I am, it's my choice. It means, uh,... you know, you need to decide and do it yourself. If you want to` if I want to change myself, it means I want to be a different person, and I'm not sure I want to be. I want to show people that I accept who I am, that I'm a real person, that I'm Dean. I'm not wanting to change from being Dean. When he was 14, Dean's surgeons reconstructed his right ear. After the ear reconstruction, it... it didn't improve me at all. It's not what I meant. Um,... if we change the ears, it wouldn't be such a huge change for me anymore. It would change how I looked, and I realized I didn't need to change how I looked. I'm still me, and I needed to learn to accept myself for myself. And I'm still learning how to accept myself. Yeah, I haven't gotten there just yet. ALL CHATTER TOGETHER Dean's part of a large blended family ` there's five kids. Where should I put this? I don't want it. It's not easy to get your voice heard. Dean's stepdad learnt some sign language, but the kids have limited ability to communicate with their brother. Dean simply spends much of his time alone in his room. My family ` brothers and sisters, Mum and Dad ` can all sign a little, but it does become a bit of a hassle for them, so they tend not to bother too much. Damian, the 3-year-old, he'll go in and sign, and he'll move his fingers around. He'll say goodnight to Dean most nights, and Dean ignores him. He'll say, 'Mum, I'm taking his computer off him if he doesn't say goodnight to me now.' He's very persistent, and he'll sometimes go and stand in front of his TV, or he'll sit there or jump on his bed until he actually pays attention to him. Dean's mum taught him Total Communication, or TC. Because TC uses the structure of English grammar, she felt it would help with his written schoolwork. In TC, each English word has a corresponding sign. Total Communication has a sign for every single word, and they don't have those signs. There was signs for 'it,', 'at', 'the' and 'as', and they don't use those signs anymore. And he's` And when you're not using those words to try and teach a Deaf person how to read and write and where those words are meant to go in the sentence, it's very hard to explain it to them. < That city rail link is actually going to connect Kingsland... At school, Dean uses NZ Sign Language, so he finds himself juggling between both forms of communication at school and home. If I signed at school like I signed at home, it wouldn't be easy to understand. A lot of the Deaf people wouldn't quite catch it, so they expect me to change to sign language, so I change to sign language so it's easier for the other Deaf students in the class. I favour TC more, and it's more of a mainstream communication. When it came time to write a speech for the annual Kelston Deaf Education Competition, Dean opted to be controversial, speaking about the benefits of Total Communication over NZ Sign Language. Dean backed up his argument that Deaf students need to understand English grammar. UPBEAT MUSIC GENEVIEVE: A few Deaf people weren't happy about what he said. It was about Total Communication, and it kinda proved what we'd been doing at home. INTERPRETER: Good evening. So, before I start, I just want to make an announcement. My presentation may offend a few people, but that's not my intention. But there have been a lot of complaints about TC. Some say it's boring, it's tiresome, repetitive and frustrating, and I have to be honest, I agree. But if you look at those students, their literacy levels are also a lot higher than they are today. He stood up there, and the confidence just oozed out of him, and we were just about in tears watching him. It was another side to Dean we hadn't seen. Adam and I sat there, and we were so proud of who he'd become and that he could get up there and talk about something and just be so positive. First in the NZ Sign Language Research Section ` Dean Buckley. APPLAUSE Last year's judge was Member of Parliament Mojo Mathers. She awarded Dean a first prize. What impressed me about Dean's speech was that he was confident and delivered it confidently, that he had a clear concept that he wanted to get across and a definite viewpoint, and that he communicated that viewpoint very effectively. Months later, when Mojo was asked to nominate a student for the annual Youth Parliament, she remembered Dean's speech. Was there something that happened that made you think, 'Ah! I'm interested in politics'? Well, really because of you. Because before, I thought Deaf people ` they couldn't be involved in politics. I thought it's something Deaf people can't do. Then I saw you, and, you know, you were in Parliament, and I thought, 'Wow, Deaf people can do it.' And so I decided, you know... I'm very happy about that. When` The first time I actually heard that` NZ's first Deaf MP, I looked at her, and I thought, 'So? So what?' You know, 'There she is.' I thought... You know, I didn't really think much of it, but later on I heard` I saw it in the newspaper, I saw it on websites, and I heard quite a lot about it and what she's done. It was only then that I realized... that` I realised that Mojo is actually changing the world. Mr Speaker, I made the point yesterday that funding... Mojo's not a big user of sign language. She was brought up to lip-read and communicate orally. It's incredibly important that people with disabilities are directly represented in Parliament. Our involvement actually reminds people that the decisions that they're making in law are going to affect people in all these ways. Parliament needs to represent the diversity of the population that is out there, and disabled people are part of that mix, and it should become a lot easier for them to be involved. PERCUSSIVE BEAT PEOPLE CHATTER You are Mojo's? Yeah. MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY We have an incredibly low level of voter participation and engagement from young people in politics, and Youth Parliament is one way for us to try to remedy that. Welcome, everybody, to this Green Youth Parliament caucus meeting. So we'll just go round the circle very quickly to introduce ourselves, and we'd love to hear who you are and where you're from. Kia ora. Kia ora koutou katoa. I'm Metiria Turei. I'm the Green Party co-leader. Uh, kia ora, guys. My name is Abbas. I was originally born in Afghanistan, but I've been living in Christchurch ever since. I'm representing, uh, Ken ` Kennedy Graham. So, yeah, that's me. WOMAN INTERPRETS: Kia ora. I'm Dean. Um, I was born in Auckland. I am an Aucklander. I am here representing Mojo Mathers. HOLLY: They do everything that we do as MPs. They get to participate in the Select Committee hearing, they get to vote on a piece of legislation in the House, they get to ask questions to ministers ` real Ministers answering the questions ` and they get to participate in general debate in Parliament as well. FUNKY MUSIC And this is Mojo's office. Yeah. So that's what` < INTERPRETS: Nice chair. < INTERPRETS: Nice chair. (LAUGHS) Yeah. MPs get special chairs. So one of the special things about Mojo's office is the division bell, and that flashes brightly when it's time for Mojo to go over to the House. And one of the newest things she's got ` which is really really exciting ` is she has a special phone that brings up text for her. Now that we have that, Mojo is able to do phone interviews independently, which is great. The invite to attend Youth Parliament was huge, but equally daunting. PEOPLE CHATTER INDISTINCTLY CHATTERING CONTINUES All the incentives... Here in the Youth Parliament Select Committee, everyone wants to make their mark. Once again in his life, Dean needs to find a big bucket of courage. WOMAN INTERPRETS: I tried... Uh, I tried to kinda share my ideas, but I really struggled to explain myself. I-I` When the others were talking, I knew what I wanted to say, and it was all there in my head, but I just didn't know how to express it. DELEGATES CHATTER Being confident enough to tackle challenges is new to Dean. For most of his life, the main thing Dean felt was isolation. He's always suffered low self-confidence. Last year, it wasn't easy. I was depressed, constantly worried, stressed. I felt alone,... You know, I felt problems at home, communication barriers. I didn't have many friends, or not many good friends, and I felt quite frustrated. When I went into school, it was just basically normal. I-I-I felt like I needed to hide who I was at school, like, pretend I was fine, and when people would see me, I didn't look fine. I looked like` I didn't want to show them my problems. I really hid it inside ` the frustrations and the stress and depression ` I kept that inside. I had a huge argument with my mum, and my mum was actually a little bit scared of me. It felt like I wanted to punch people. Later on, I caused myself self-harm and ended up in the hospital. I...I felt like I had let my family down. I didn't realize that I shouldn't have done that. Still to this day I feel bad. TEARFULLY: To have him feel like he couldn't, um... didn't want to be here any more... And he came and gave me a hug on his 18th birthday, and he apologized to me, and that meant more to me than anything else ` that he, you know... And every day with him, it's just so precious, and` and he knows how much he means to us, and... it's changed him, and it's made him want to be here. It's made him want to be happy. But there's another reason Dean's been so withdrawn. He came downstairs one day on Easter Sunday last year and said, to` 'Can I talk to you and Dad?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said to us, he said, 'I'm gay.' And I said to him, 'How does that make you feel?' I said, 'Are you happy about that?' And he goes, 'Yes.' And I said, 'Well, we're happy too.' And we both got up and gave him a hug. Before that, before I came out, I always felt blocked and private about it. I thought my parents maybe... You know, that they wouldn't really accept me, they would force me to change or be 'normal', and I was lucky that they accepted me. Because when I told my parents, I had been hiding it for about five years. When I told my parents, they said, 'It's fine. It's not a problem.' I-I-I didn't realize that I should have told them earlier. I-I had been depressed, and all that stress and depression suddenly vanished when I said that. I told them I was gay, and they told me it was just normal. I'm normal. You know, I'm still human. GENEVIEVE: For the first time, he was himself, and he'd smile and was a lot more relaxed and started talking to his friends, communicating a lot more, and, you know, socialising. He's a lot happier. We've never actually seen him as happy as he's been, especially in the last few weeks. Dean likes being bossy. He loves being bossy, so he loves the fact that someone's actually listening to him and doing what he says. And Damian just loves, you know, the fact that he's getting attention. He just wants Dean's attention all the time, and` and he has a lot of respect for Dean, even at such a young age. The kids aspire to be more like him, especially after everything he's accomplished this year. It's made my 12-year-old focus a lot more on schoolwork, and` because they've watched how much harder he's had to fight for everything. UPBEAT MUSIC INDISTINCT CHATTER Today, Dean stands alongside some of the finest young speakers in the country as he delivers his first speech in Parliament. Mr Speaker, will the Government make a commitment to reducing carbon emissions as has been done by countries such as Denmark, Norway and China? My question is to the Minister of Economic Development and asks what does this Government plan to do to reduce the number of NZers permanently emigrating for better wages and better standard of living? BOY: If the National-led Government wants to show young NZers they think their future is important, they should be keeping our state-owned assets state owned. Young people do not want their future to be put up for sale! Young people do not want their future to be put up for sale! BELL RINGS CHEERING, APPLAUSE Order. You are required to follow the correct protocol. SPEAKER: Question number 16, Dean Buckley. WOMAN INTERPRETS: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Finance. Why is Government selling state assets rather than borrowing? And will the asset sales result in foreign ownership of shares that previously were owned by Government? Today, in the debating chamber, when I stood up and asked my question, I felt more professional in my delivery in the big arena there in the big debating chamber. Yeah, so it was` It felt good. Dean's not the only Deaf representative in this year's Youth Parliament. Hannah Deal is from Christchurch. She's representing Labour's spokesperson for Disability Issues, Ruth Dyson. WOMAN INTERPRETS: We go into the debating chamber, and we'll talk about... Uh, sign language awareness is what I'm going to talk about, in the community. I'm looking forward to listening to her, actually. But, really, she will be fine. You'll be fine. And I'm here to support you. < MR SPEAKER: Hannah Deal. WOMAN INTERPRETS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. My name is Hannah, and I'm going to be talking about the main issue in the community for Deaf youth. NZ Sign Language is the third official language in NZ. Over 24,000 NZers use sign language. It is very important for NZ youth to be aware of the Deaf community. I hope some of you would like to learn NZ Sign Language and get to know of different cultural elements. Remember that technology can assist communication between me and you. I am Hannah, and I am Deaf, and I am proud of it. APPLAUSE < Order. I felt` You know, I don't want to go home now. I want to stay. I'm really enjoying it. I'm a completely different person now. The old Dean has gone. This is the new Dean you're looking at. Because, well, to be honest, it is the best year of the last 10 years, because I've had a lot of support and made new friends, my parents have supported me a lot, and that's made me more confident. INDISTINCT CHATTER The sixth annual Attitude Awards are closing in fast. We are here to celebrate the achievements and the contributions of some of the 17% of NZers who live with disability. Next week, we profile the 23 finalists, and voting begins for the People's Choice Award on attitudelive.com You work so hard for it and given up so much that it was just so good to finally achieve what you set out to do four years earlier. There are so many people touched with a disability. Why not represent that community in our workforce? The best way to change society's attitudes is do things that people don't think we're capable of doing. The goal, in the end, is to see more people with disabilities in the mainstream media. COMPUTER: Going sailing gives me a sense of freedom because it is the only water sport I can do by myself. I love to challenge my mind as much as my body. When you're creating something, it` it gives you a real buzz, makes you feel alive. I do. The sky's the limit, as far as I'm concerned. I set the bar as to what is possible in my life. INSPIRING MUSIC Captions by June Yeow. www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013