Deafblind Awareness Week 2021 report

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What a great week! There were six different activities for DBAW 2021. On June 23, we celebrated with an event at Ross House. It was attended by 15 Deafblind people and a number of supporters, including representatives from the Tree Project and Melbourne City Library. DBV members spent the morning decorating trees and poles in Flinders Lane with colourful yarn bombing creations alongside a window display outside Ross House. The yarn bombing was made mostly by DBV members, who set up a craft group with a grant from the Tye Recreation Fund. Crocheted and knitted squares were also donated, including a number from the Country Women’s association Boroondara. Thank you!

We held an exhibition in the pedestrian underpass, Campbell Arcade, that connects Flinders Street station to Flinders Lane. The exhibition, titled “Deafblind Awareness: a tactile imagination“, features photographic portraits by Jessica Leane and showcases achievements of Deafblind people, including arts and crafts, tactile Auslan and interpreting tables, braille and parenting. The exhibition was up for the whole month of July.

DBV also gave a workshop to Auslan students from Melbourne Polytechnic, with DBV members Heather Lawson, Alison Rawson and Alex Sar presenting. We raised funds by selling Deafblind awareness t-shirts that will be worn and seen in the community, and we had a special week of video posts from DBV members on our Facebook page all week, showing the diversity of our community.

A big thank you to all the wonderful DBV members and volunteers who made it happen.