MICHAEL UNIACKE recalls the time when the victory song of the Australian Rules football team, Collingwood, collided with Australian Sign Language. AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL, known as AFL, is a brutal high-speed collision game. In each team, 18 over-muscled young men use their bodies as weapons, crashing into opponents as they run around a large […]

In the second of a two-part series on Vicdeaf’s change of name, MICHAEL UNIACKE looks at the words ‘expression’, ‘Australia’ and the new logo   “IF I TOLD YOU THERE was an organisation called “Expression Australia”, what would you think would be its business?” I asked a dozen people this question. All were hearing people, […]

For the first time in more than 130 years, the major organisation for deaf people in Victoria, Australia, will not have the word ‘deaf’ in its title. In the first of a two-part series, MICHAEL UNIACKE takes a look at what this means.   WHAT’S IN A NAME? Will Vicdeaf by any other name smell […]

A tale of a dying man, troublesome boots and many a duck dive convince MICHAEL UNIACKE that lipreading just might be more farce than art   LATE ONE AFTERNOON when I worked at the Adult Deaf Society of Victoria in the 1980s, I was with Pat and Marianne in reception, when they received a strange […]

Should deaf and disabled actors be the only ones eligible to play roles that feature disability? It might seem they have a compelling case, but according to MICHAEL UNIACKE, that isn’t the best question to ask. THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION of deaf and disabled actors playing disabled characters sounds obvious – of course they […]

It’s critical for deaf people to see faces in order to communicate. So what do they do when hearing people start to cover their faces? According to MICHAEL UNIACKE, it’s about common sense.   IT WAS A MOMENT from 12 years ago I still remember well. My family had sat down to a breakfast in […]