It wasn’t until I was one or two that my parents began to suspect that something was wrong.

They noticed that I was not responding to noise or to them calling me or to the loud TV. At that point, they decided to go to the doctors and after several tests, it was found that I was profoundly Deaf. My parents were shocked as I had not had any extreme sickness or anything of the sort. They didn’t have any clue what ‘deafness’ meant, nor had they ever met a Deaf person in their lives. The only thing they could do was put their faith in the doctors and allow them to show them how to raise a Deaf child.

It was at that point that my mother knew she had to learn English to help with my education. Both my parents came from Montenegro (part of the former Yugoslavia) with my father arriving in Australia in 1968, and my mother coming two years later after they decided to get married. Dad had fled the country to avoid being enlisted in the army and, after several stops, a sea journey and more than a few long drives, ended up in Sydney where he still is now.

Along the way, he worked in the snowy mountains of Cooma building water pipes and later he was a truck driver, so he picked up English fairly well. Mum came over at a time where Australia was encouraging Europeans to emigrate and she flew over on a $13.00 flight ticket! Mum started working as a dressmaker so she could pick up some English and she was employed by a couple who needed someone who could sew with a machine. It started off well and she was picking up the new language until one day, she discovered that the couple spoke Russian! She ended up picking up a bit of Russian and everyone thought that was quite funny.

Anyway, when I was diagnosed as Deaf and fitted for hearing aids, Mum renewed her efforts in learning English by attending classes.

My parents wanted to make sure that I fitted in the community and though my sister, brother and I came from a different background, they wanted us to live as Australians. At home, English was spoken, though I knew that my parents used another language (Albanian) which I never really learnt. In school, I never realised that I was different until about 10 or 11 when I was sent to an integrated school that had a Deaf unit which provided support. The whole time, I had always thought that I was too good for my class when I was excused to read with a visiting teacher in the staff room!

I picked up Auslan (Australian sign language) in high school and I wanted to be a teacher but ended up not finishing my course at TAFE. I worked later at a Deaf pre-school and as a child care worker before I landed a job as an actress with the Australian Theatre of the Deaf (ATOD) in 1996. ATOD is now based in Melbourne, where I moved to in 1999, and I’ve been linked to them in one way or another ever since. I also worked for Deaf Children Australia, and am now involved in Deaf Victoria along with theatre-based organisation Auslan Stage Left, iAuslan (an organisation that promotes Deaf culture through videos) and Turquoise Australia, a group that I co-founded that organises Deaf short film events.

I am glad to be an Australian because when I compare life in Germany, where I’ve stayed, I see that I would not be able to have some things I have now.

For example, only 20% of TV shows in Germany have subtitles where else about 70% of shows in Australia are captioned. In Australia, we have access to theatre interpreting and captioned facilities at major zoos, galleries and museums like the National Gallery of Victoria and the MGC (Museums and Galleries Commission) museums but it’s true that we do not have enough captioned cinemas.

I’ve seen, however, that Deaf culture and pride in Germany is very strong. They have a richer Deaf community theatre here with many more actors willing to come forward. I think in Australia, you have to be good and liked and work well in a team to be accepted in a theatre group but in Germany, things are more open and information is shared more openly through meetings and Deaf clubs. In Australia, we have strong advocacy agencies and professional Deaf societies but perhaps, bringing things forward on a more personal level is something we could look at.

– Medina