UPBEAT MUSIC Captions by Alana Cruikshank Edited by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 DRUM MUSIC (EXHALES) He's 14 years old, with his eye on the 2020 Olympics. Sekou Kanneh is the fastest kid in Queensland. INTERPRETER: I love running, and I'm really focused on it. I love the competition and the personal challenge. I just want to get better and better. Deafness and hearing are equal when I'm running. FAST DRUM MUSIC I want to get better and better, so I can get to the Olympics. (PANTS) Sekou escaped the civil war in Liberia. He was 5 when he arrived in Brisbane, Australia. HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYS Sekou's the only Deaf person in his family, so he finds other ways to express himself at home. < GIRL: All you're doing is moving! (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) This house is gonna break! (LAUGHS) LAUGHTER INTERPRETER: I got used to lip-reading my parents, and I learnt to understand their gestures. When I arrived here, I had no English and no Auslan. I had nothing. TRAIN RUMBLES Sekou loves living in Australia. He was introduced to Australian Sign Language when he arrived. His local high school is a very inclusive place. Sign Language, or Auslan, is an optional subject. And while most of the students are hearing, almost everyone signs. You can look out in the look out in the playground and see students communicating in sign, and they may or may not be Deaf. It's just a part of, um... part of the school. It's good that Auslan is recognised for its distinctness as a language and, um, for Deafness as a culture. We have courses running after school, and they're full, so there's a, um` a very exciting, growing awareness of, um,... Auslan and value for it... and excitement in learning it. In Sekou's group of friends, only one other boy is Deaf, but they all sign. Sekou's pretty comfortable here. The Sekou I see now is a very social,... um, person. Everybody knows him because of his athletic achievements. He's very comfortable going up and initiating conversations with a wide variety of people,... so some people have called him a social butterfly. (LAUGHS) If he'd stayed in Africa, it's unlikely Sekou would have learnt any sign. HIP-HOP MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES 1 While life at school is going well, communication at home is strained. SHOPPING BAGS RUSTLE INTERPRETER: Most of the time, they speak African at home. My mother can sign a little bit and can finger spell a little bit, but how we communicate is mainly gesture. And I can lip-read my mum's lips when she speaks African, but when she speaks English, I can't lip-read her at all. BAG RUSTLES DUCK QUACKS My sister Bindu helps with signing between me and my mother. I talk to her, and she tells Mum what I've said. Sometimes I try to talk to Mum, but mostly I just go through my sister, so she is the interpreter in the house. She goes between sign, African and English. I sign a little to her, and she switches from English to African. That's how we manage. Communication at home can be difficult, um, because he doesn't... he gets frustrated, angry or sad, and it, um, ends up` he` So, cos he can't communicate, he ends up talking on his phone a lot, or just texting and stuff... and not making small communications or something, or watching TV. PACKAGE RATTLES (SPEAKS AFRICAN LANGUAGE) > PLASTIC BAGS RUSTLE DUCK QUACKS PLASTIC BAGS RUSTLE Sekou's mother, Fatima, runs a day care in her home to provide for the family. While she's grateful to be here, everything about life in Australia still feels foreign. It's tough to put the trauma of war behind them. INTERPRETER: I do have a lot of memories. I remember a good friend of mine. When the war happened, they took him and turned him into a child soldier. The soldiers made all the kids shoot their parents, and if they refused, they made the kids eat them raw. They told them war was fun, 'You will have fun shooting a gun off. Its good fun.' They try and make war sound like fun to get them to join in. We heard the guns of the soldiers. There were four paths out of the village. We weren't sure which one to take. There were soldiers blocking every path. But my mum was really smart and found a way through. And we fled through the bushes. They were right behind us, coming after us. The child soldiers were closing in on us. My mum was trying to keep everyone together. We were all running. My father went a different way, so we lost my father. Everyone got scattered. I was in a group of eight, running together. We kept going and going through the bush, and they kept chasing us. 250,000 Liberians died in one of Africa's bloodiest civil wars. Sekou's family was lucky. Only about one in 1000 refugees made it to Australia. TRIBAL DRUM MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES INTERPRETER: We didn't know which way to go, but then we saw a refugee camp. It was an American camp. There was only about 500 refugees in the camp, and they gave us shelter. It took Mum three years to get all the permissions. There was a list of countries to choose from, but which country was the best one to go to? Mum talked to a few people and decided on Australia. It was a couple of years of checking visas and everything, posting forms, making sure everything was correct, and we finally landed in Australia, and we've done really well here. SOFT ELECTRONICA MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES UPBEAT MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES INTERPRETER: I don't miss Africa. I'm not interested in Africa. I couldn't do running there. They are not set up for it, really. They have all the facilities here. I'd rather be here. Parents over there just want a hearing kid so it's easy to communicate. If they're Deaf, they just put them down the toilet or something. They just disappear. You know, get rid of them somehow. Maybe feed them to the dogs. And with schooling, they kick you out. The family loves socialising with other Liberians, but it's tough for Sekou to join in. LAUGHTER There's significant differences in how,... um, a family that,... um, has open communication in a language they're comfortable with,... um, the child feels,... uh, they have identity, and there's no frustration. Things are discussed. At the other end of the spectrum, if there's a Deaf student who's in a family situation where the family haven't learnt sign and communication is really difficult, then that has a lot of potential to be really risky. There's frustration coming from either side, from the brothers and sisters, the mother and the Deaf student, so if you look at it from outside; why didn't they learn signing? But, you know, families are complex. UPBEAT MARIMBA MUSIC INTERPRETER: If you don't run fast, the parachute will drop down and drag around. What are the advantages of having a Deaf coach? Well, you need it for communication. Sekou's coach, Brad Schofield, sees enormous potential. He was a Deaf kid himself, so he realises how Olympic success could totally change Sekou's life. I grew up very differently to Sekou. I grew up with oral training,... no signing. But I was like Sekou, because I played a lot of sport at high school. Every day I would go to school,... come home, play sport. I think it was very helpful, because if I didn't have sport, what could I do? I would feel isolated,... maybe feel depressed as well. OK, do this, please. Hey, hey, hang on. Hang on. You need to be focused. You need to be focused. INTERPRETER: I am! Brad's gotta ride the clutch ` he must keep Sekou focused, but he also remembers what it's like to be 14. Hurry up! I said to Sekou, 'You need to be within the 10-second mark for the 100m 'if you wanna make it to Nationals this year.' Hurry up! Focus! He was a little upset when I told him he needed to get to the 10-second mark, because he thought that was pretty hard to achieve, but, in all seriousness, he does need to improve. He's running... 11.28 at the moment,... so he can definitely improve. When Sekou comes to training, it's a bit random ` sometimes he's silly, sometimes he's focused, sometimes he pretends to have an injury. INTERPRETER: With me, I just want to be relaxed, laid-back. My body gets sore, but he keeps pushing me and pushing me, and, 'Do more! Do more!' He's always focused on my time, trying to get it down. LAUGHTER INTERPRETER: Sometimes, he is actually sore, but sometimes it's just laziness. UPBEAT MARIMBA MUSIC WHIMSICAL MUSIC Sekou's always had natural ability, but for a long time, he wasn't winning ` mostly because he couldn't hear the start gun. INTERPRETER: What I do is I look at the people on either side of me, and when they take off, I take off after them. But I have to look at them to know what to do. The can hear the starting gun, and they get the jump on me. It's not fair. It makes it hard for me. I'm at a disadvantage. We kept fighting and fighting, but everyone said no. But I was very stubborn. I wanted to have the flashing lights, so what I did was go to court. I said to the Human Rights Commissioner, 'It's discrimination. 'They're not giving me a flashing light. I should use one. I wanna be the same as everyone else. 'I want it to be fair.' So 12-year-old Sekou lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, who helped fight his case at the High Court. And I won. They said I must have a flashing light so I can compete in the races like everybody else. This was the first time anywhere a light system had to be provided in a mainstream race. BIRDS TWITTER INTERPRETER: For the first two years, I was really happy teaching Sekou. He was really keen and trained hard. But then he went to high school,... and things changed completely. And now, he only comes to me once a week, sometimes not at all. < CHATTER INSIDE Sometimes I just wanna quit. It's not worth it to me, going to training every day when he doesn't even show up. (LAUGHS) SPRINGS CREAK (LAUGHS) INTERPRETER: I told him, 'If you continue training this year the same as last year, 'you can go find another coach.' INTERPRETER: I've been training with Brad for four years now. At the moment, I'm getting a little bit frustrated, a bit fed up. I just want him to relax a little, to calm down. INTERPRETER: The benefit of running for Sekou is that it helps with his behaviour. I think without running, he would get into a fair bit of trouble. TRAIN WHOOSHES BINDU: I think he gets frustrated, because, hmm, I don't think Mum understood him that well. I think it's,... um, pretty sad,... really. He doesn't really talk to me about those things, but I can see it. Just lately, he got really mad, and he, like, causes so much noise, and he shouts, and he stomps up the stairs, and he locks himself up. He tries to destroy his phone and it's, like, 'Whoa.' (CHUCKLES) It's just, like... It's really scary to watch. SOMBRE ELECTRONIC MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES INTERPRETER: I just get sick of the communication hassles, and I lose it. I lose my temper. It's just too hard for me. Everybody's hearing, and they all just talk. It's not fair. I feel like my family neglects me. Everyone gets together, and they're talking and having fun and laughing. And I just sit by myself. It's making me lose my temper. Mum's always having friends over, and they're talking and having fun, and I'm, like, 'Come on, learn to sign.' That's what frustrates me, and then I lose it. It's not fair. She gets to talk to her friends, but not to me. I feel like I'm trapped with my family. All they do is talk. That's what it's been like my whole life. I'm so used to it, and I have to live with it. They never sign. Now they're trying, but they're lazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. INTERPRETER: I have to make a decision, maybe, for a year, to go stay with some Deaf people and have good communication using signing. I'll be just like a hearing kid in a hearing family, being a Deaf kid in a Deaf family. Yeah. Maybe just take a year away from home, just to be happy and laugh and sign, then once I'm happy again, go back home. Yeah, so... FAST DRUM MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES 1 Sekou's family believe in his Olympic dream and do what they can to support him. While he knows training will only get harder, the rewards are worth it, and he's not too keen on the alternative. INTERPRETER: Some lifestyles are pretty negative. There's lots of partying, lots of drinking, fighting. They aren't focused; they're just interested in how they look. They get into trouble with the police. They get a bad reputation. I don't want a bad reputation. The Olympics is more friendly. Everyone is there for the same reason. It's a lot more fun. You form friendships. You have good goals. It's something you can strive for, train for. You're part of a team. It's just really good. FAST DRUM MUSIC I believe I can be faster, get a better time. I have more in me to get faster. I don't wanna give up now. I want to be consistent to my training, be motivated, and keep getting better times as I get older,... because my goal is getting to the Olympics. His first step in getting to the Olympics is to qualify in the Queensland State Championships. INTERPRETER: If you're out in front, just keep going. There's a little bit of wind, but you should be all right. You should be able to break the record. The wind might change a little bit today, but I think you can still break that record. So that's your goal for today, so make sure you get a good start. Really push out from the blocks, just like in training. You've had good starts at training. Keep your head down for about 30m, then head up. Run tall, all right? Nice and tall. Make sure you use the power in your arms, and it helps with your legs. While Sekou is working harder at his running, Fatima is working harder with her sign. You, too long. Need short time. Need short time. Short time. Need short time. Short time. Yeah. Oh, thank you. TRIBAL DRUM MUSIC Sekou's main race is the 100m. He's going to win it, but to qualify for the state champs, he needs a personal best. CHATTER Yep. The first light works. The second light works. Yes. Working. DRUM MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC DIES MUSIC RESUMES CHEERING, APPLAUSE Sekou beat his personal best and broke the long-standing state record. INDISTINCT CHATTER BIRDS CHIRP INTERPRETER: Hey, here are your medals ` gold for the 100m and silver for the 400m. Good job. You've made state for both events. ROLLING DRUMBEAT Captions by Alana Cruikshank. Edited by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015