Auslan

Guest curator Darlene Thornton explains how Auslan evolved through Australian Deaf history.

Ernest Reynolds showing sign vocabulary, c. 1949

After the 1949 conference on standardising signs, the Victorian Adult Deaf and Dumb Society produced three films, with their Superintendent

Conversation with the Deaf, 1967

Deaf and Dumb Festival, 1887

Uniform Signs for the Deaf

How Auslan got its name in the 1980s

Manual alphabet, 1862

This is an illustration of the fingerspelling alphabet that was used in the NSW Deaf and Dumb Institute in 1862,

The Lord’s Prayer in the language of gesture, c. 1920s

The Silent Messenger, March-April 1949 – ‘Signs Conference’

This conference in Sydney in 1949 shows us that there have regularly been discussions about standardising signs around Australia. At

Learn the New Signs! c. 1965