Author: Michael Uniacke

The Unguarded Quarter Publications

About TUQ

What's TUQ?

Like an eccentrically-sited camera taking angle-shots that distort but may often reveal otherwise masked lineaments of truth, the deaf person watches from the unexpected and unguarded quarter. David Wright Deafness Stein & Day, New York, 1969, p111

TUQ = The Unguarded Quarter

Lots of things, with an obvious slant towards deafness. It covers hearing impairment, disability at some stage, media, other things as well. The Unguarded Quarter continues my life-long exploration of deafness.

Why deafness?

It's endlessly fascinating. If you take any slice of life, and look at it through a deaf lens, you often get something no-one's thought of before. Deafness is a rich and wholly unknown part of the human condition. I think most deaf people reach their own accommodation about being deaf, and in doing so, bring their own particular insights to the vast and colourful tapestry. It means the politics of deafness is never static. Deaf people themselves don't necessarily agree on matters, and even well-intentioned hearing people sometimes leave me speechless. It's infuriating, exasperating, hilarious, and most of all, fascinating.

The Weekly Blog

The lived experience of disability needs a flag

An executive of a disability organisation who doesn’t think much of the value of “lived experience” of people with disabilities is unaware of the one thing everyone with a disability knows about. It’s something MICHAEL UNIACKE would like to see in a flag. THE IDEA OF “LIVED experience” of disability makes Phil Hayes-Brown nervous. Writing […]

Can you ask that? Deafinitely.

  There was nothing wrong with the ABC’s ‘You Can’t Ask That’ episode on deaf people. According to MICHAEL UNIACKE, the episode was mostly about satisfying the curiosity of hearing people.   PERHAPS THE MOST MEMORABLE moment in the deaf episode of the ABC television series “You Can’t Ask That” came from Dion Galea. In describing […]

What people are saying…

“Uniacke wants to get across basic facts about the history of Deaf culture — including the very fact that there is a long standing history."
Mike Northen – Wordgathering

 

“The book does contain beautiful evocations of what it’s like not to hear fully and not fit in as a result. "
Raymond Luczak – Wordgathering

Latest Essay

The ironies in Lawson’s campfire

Did Henry Lawson create idyllic scenes of yarns around campfires because he was deaf and could not take part in them? IF HENRY Lawson was alive today, what would he say at a press conference? For … Read On...

Contact TUQ

We are based in Castlemaine, just outside of Melbourne, Australia.

Contact TUQ

Our Latest Book

Not the News TV Show

Michael Uniacke on Channel 31

Article from the Vault

Remembering Ben

The late Ben Souter stood at the intersection of the Deaf community and Auslan interpreters I knew Ben, not well, but well enough. I would … Read On...