Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.

Explore the growing digital archive of deaf history in Australia

Education

Deaf Advocacy

Relevant Artefacts

Booth and Mortlock

A written conversation

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Public letter to members of the Australian Association for the Advancement of the Deaf

A plea from Martha Overend Wilson, c1936.

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Martha Overend Wilson

Leader in the Deaf Community in Queensland and nationally.

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Deaf and Dumb, Angry Meeting

This article details the angry meeting held at 5 Elizabeth St Sydney following the dismissal of Herbert Hersee.

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Deaf and Dumb, New Society Formed

On 23 May the Sydney Morning Herald recorded the establishment of “a new society”.

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Deaf and Dumb Wild Meeting Policemen Present

Wild scenes at the Deaf Society AGM.

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Breakaway in Queensland

Queensland breakaway association founded.

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1977 Meeting to Discuss Possible National Association

Considerable hestitation about whether or not to establish a national association.

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1983 Meeting to again discuss possible national association

In contrast to the meeting in 1977, the delegates at this meeting agreed to establish a national association of deaf people.

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“Circular Letter,” reproduced in The Deaf Advocate

From April 1931, reproduced in 1933.

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Why Deaf People Must Write

A plea for deaf people to write and so to speak for themselves and make their own decisions.

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Ewing Report Letters to the Editor

Including a letter from Eli Noble

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Samuel Showell Letter to the Editor

Letter on deaf education following reporting on the 1903 Congress.

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Relevant Stories

First Nations Deaf History

A lack of respectfully documented history that we know of.

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An Early Attempt to Establish a Deaf Association
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National Deaf Organisations
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Further Readings

Carty, B. (2018). Managing their own affairs: The Australian Deaf community in the 1920s and 1930s. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Carty, B. (2016). The “breakaways”: Deaf citizens’ groups in Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. In B. H. Greenwald & J. J. Murray (Eds.), In our own hands: Essays in deaf history 1780-1970 (pp. 211-238). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Thornton, D., Macready, S., & Levitzke-Gray, P. (2014). Written into history: The lives of Australian Deaf leaders. In K. Snoddon, Ed., Telling deaf lives: Agents of change (pp. 93-101). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Anderson, M. (2001). Daisy Muir: A remarkable influence in the Deaf community. Unpublished Master of Education Research Essay, La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Dillon, A. (2015). Negotiating two worlds through the media: Debates about deaf education and sign language from 1970 to 2000. Unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of South Australia, Adelaide.

Hoopmann, S. R. (2011). ‘We’re Deaf women! We’re sisters!’: Exploring the female Deaf voice through community and commensality. Unpublished Honours thesis, University of Adelaide.

Welcome to the Deaf History Collections

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors to our site, recognising the long, rich, complex and unjustly disregarded histories of First Nations peoples in Australia.
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