ASLIA National Conference – Transitions

A delegate’s perspective

The ASLIA National Conference is a prime event on the annual Auslan interpreter’s PD calendar and rightly so! This Conference was a conference with a difference. The organizing committee did an exemplary job of arranging the event in only five short months. They were able to pull together a wide mix of presenters who were researchers, interpreters, professionals and deaf people who work closely with interpreters sharing their thoughts and experiences. Presenters and delegates were from all over Australia (including the Torres Strait Islands) as well as New Zealand and Fiji.

Both days were packed with high quality and thought provoking presentations. The range of papers reflected the momentum of growth and change that the Auslan interpreting profession is currently experiencing.

It is difficult to describe the highlights of the conference for me, but it was fantastic to see so many papers presented in Auslan by both deaf and hearing presenters. This was made possible by a system provided by Macquarie University known as a ‘chucotage’. There are so many issues to grapple with but I particularly enjoyed the Keynote address by Dr Rachel McKee (on NZ Sign language research and other international presentations such as: Susan Emerson on working in Kosovo, George Major on WASLI and the Australasia and Oceania region of WASLI, Inise Tawaketini on working as an interpreter in Fiji and the challenges of getting interpreter training established there.

Another strong memory that I took away from the conference was the presentation by Alma Waia an Aboriginal Deaf relay interpreter who works with her community and ‘white’ interpreters in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in Cairns. Karin Fay’d herbe and Carmel Batson spoke of the challenges of being white and working with communities especially with police and how deaf relay interpreters like Alma are able to provide a cultural link between ATSI culture, ATSI deaf culture and white and white deaf culture. A fantastic and really enjoyable presentation!

The other ‘hot’ topic that was discussed was the contentious issue of remuneration, pay scales the disincentive for Auslan interpreters to continue training (as all pay scales are the same regardless of training undertaken) especially when working in educational settings. Many of our interpreters are currently working in challenging situations in all levels of education. This area of work is so important as deaf people are able to access educational opportunities and go on to become better employed and remunerated. Yet our interpreters are working with a wide range of subject areas, little training and remuneration that does not provide an incentive to ongoing training.

There were so many other excellent presentations covering areas such as:

• Interpreting in a digital age and working with digital media (Marcel Leneham)
• The challenges of Tandem interpreting (Janine Kirkup)
• The emergence of deaf relay interpreters (Jemina Napier for Della Goswell
• Perceptions of interpreting from deaf people’s and interpreters perspectives (Gary Kerridge)
• The challenge of creative translation – the use of creative and ‘free’ interpreting in some settings (Caroline Conlon)

The social night on Saturday was another highlight, Karen Bontempo’s JW Flynn Oration bravely allowed us to see some video clips of her as an Auslan student learning Auslan and trying to interpret before she became the highly skilled and dedicated interpreter that she is. This was indeed an eye opener and I was reminded yet again that I should be supportive of people learning Auslan as there may be a diamond who will one day become like Karen. A lot of laughs were had on the night, the Australian Theatre of the Deaf gave a fantastic performance and the infamous Sign Karaoke was on again although people got up of their own accord! Marcel did a fabulous rendition of ‘Its Raining Men” and Caroline Conlon was also in fine form!

A fantastic conference –start saving for the ANC 2008 on 5 th to 7 th September 2008 in Darwin NT it will be too good to miss!