For Deaf artist William Maggs, attending World Pride helped him to re-evaluate and further understand his queer identity. He discovered a large community of Deaf Queer & Gay people. Communication was easy, and William learned from how they saw themselves.
The affirmation that he could be anyone he wanted to be has given William confidence that’s now feeding into his artistic life.
I analysed what made me feel trapped, and that it was time to let go of those things.William Maggs
Watch the first episode of Humans of the Australian Deaf Community now on the channel or . New episodes will be released monthly.
is the second series of Our Deaf Ways - a video podcast created by SBS and Deaf Australia for Deaf, DeafBlind and hard of hearing people who use Auslan, but we also invite hearing people to watch. The video portraits introduce you to the stories of Deaf people from different walks of life.
Series created by Paula Thornton, Deaf Australia.
Additional editing by Yifan Gan.
Deaf Australia and SBS acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are watching with us.
Deaf Australia and SBS celebrate Auslan and recognise all Deaf leaders in Australia who have advocated for Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing communities. Deaf Australia is proud of everyone’s contribution, whether big or small, in preserving our language, community and culture.
Transcript
00:00 – 00:07
My name is William. I am twenty-two years old and I live on Kaurna land, also known as Adelaide.
00:08 – 00:11
I identify as Queer, Deaf and an artist.
00:13 – 00:13
Fabulous!
00:16 – 00:20
I just had a meeting to see if it is possible to establish the arts exhibition here in Adelaide for the first time.
00:21 – 00:23
I am really excited about this as I normally go interstate for Deaf arts exhibition events like Flow Festival.
00:26 – 00:27
(General chatter)
00:31 – 00:345
Grace: He will curate the exhibition.
00:36 – 00:41
Over there will be signage explaining Barry’s life story.
00:41 – 00:46
Then over there will be information about the history and all along the rest of this wall will be all kind of artworks.
00:49 – 00:54
My experience at World Pride was amazing as it really encouraged me to re-evaluate my identity
00:54 – 01:04
Before that I was really uncertain about who I was. Was I Queer? What was my sexuality? What gender did I connect with?
01:05 – 01:11
I was unsure whether I was a male or female. Or was I an agender person or a non-binary person?
01.12 – 01:22
When I went, I discovered a large community of Deaf Queer & gay people who I could communicate with easily and learn more about how they saw themselves.
01:23 – 01:27
That helped me work out my own identity and find connections with people who I could relate to and who had similar feelings.
01:30 – 01:37
Going to World Pride made me realise that I could be anyone I wanted to be and when I came home,
01:38 – 01:42
I analysed what made me feel trapped, and that it was time to let go of those things.
01:42 – 01:47
I decided there would be a new me, and who I could be. And the conclusion was, I am William!
01:49 – 01:52
TITLE – Marina, William’s mum
That’s my first, second & third child
01:52 – 01:53
Tell me their names
01:54 – 01:59
Marina: Ok, that’s John, William and Simon
02:06 – 02:15
I come from a long line of Deaf people. Mine is the sixth generation of Deaf in my family! That includes 3 children - me and my two brothers.
02:16 – 02:18
My father has eight siblings and they all are Deaf!
02:19 – 02:24
The whole family is Deaf. My brother now has a Deaf daughter as well!
02:29 – 02:32
I’m the middle child so naturally I’m the best! No argument there!
02:32 – 02:34
TITLE: Simon, William’s younger brother
The youngest one gets spoilt all the time!
02:37 – 02:37
Hmm, true that!
02:38 – 02:39
Simon: So you are the bossy one?
02:41 – 02:44 *
TITLE: John, William’s older brother
I have to fix you both up all the time!
02:48 – 02:53
Marina: You started drawing and you just wanted to learn more and more about drawing
02:54 – 02:58
Yes, do you remember when I was going to swimming lessons and I didn’t want to swim, I just wanted to paint!
02:59 – 03:03
You tried to encourage me to do other things but I would still just want to paint! It was frustrating for you right?
03:04 – 03:12 (Marina)
Yes! We gave you tools to do what you wanted to do, a big round container of coloured pencils and you would just draw & colour!
03:12 – 03:19 (Marina)
I also gave you paper, and random things such as magazines. You would cut out pictures of things you wanted to practice drawing.
03:19 – 03:26 (Marina)
You were eager to learn how to shade, I would show you how and you picked it up from there.
03:27 – 03:32 (William)
Yep, it went upwards from there on! I didn’t stop and I am still doing it today! I still paint!
03:32 – 03:32 (Marina)
Oh yes definitely.
03:33 – 03:39 (William)
So, this is a painting that I did in Year 12, part of the project was to explore the topic Death.
03:40 – 03:49
I had a cousin pass away, Jessie Cooper and that was when I was in Year 12. It was an emotional time for me, the grieving process.
03:50 – 03:57
I didn’t really understand fully what death meant so I explored what it meant for different cultures where
03:57 - 04:01
some cultures would celebrate the life of that person while other cultures will grieve for that person’s passing.
04:01 – 04:09
There were different ways of coping with grief, so I painted this perspective of death and what it ultimately meant to me.
04:09 – 04:17
The wings are a symbol of eyes being closed, at peace, floating in space, disappearing into the universe. So that’s an artwork of my vision.
04:25 – 04:35
I am currently studying Bachelor of Creative Arts at Flinders University. I also work casually as an Auslan tutor at TAFE SA.
04:36 – 04:43
This is where I usually study painting at TAFE for my university studies.
04:44 – 04:48
TITLE: Nicky, Auslan Interpreter
You will start to draw the geometric shapes.
04:50 – 04:53 (Nicky)
You will need to paint different areas around the shapes.
04:58 – 05:04 (William)
So I use various different processes when I paint. This one is a freestyle painting which I really enjoyed doing.
05:05 – 05:10
I’ve also explored other mediums such as digital art and 3D animation that have been provided here at university as part of my degree.
05:10 - 05:16
This led me to discovering that I didn’t really enjoy that area of art related to digital and 3D animation. It was not my forte.
05:17 -05:20
I really enjoy painting, the creative freedom it offers me.
05:21 – 05:33
This was part of a really different exercise focused the “broken colour” painting technique where we had to start by applying a bright colour as the background
05:33 – 05:43
and then I applied other colours loosely to let the orange colour shine through. I focused on that effect.
05:51 – 05:52
(William conversing in a meeting)
05:53 – 05:55
TITLE: Katrina, Auslan Teacher
…group of students into the classroom
05:56 – 05:58 (Katrina)
So we will need to split them into groups.
06:02 – 06:08 (William)
I enjoy talking walks through nature;. This helps me relax.
06:11 – 06:14
I will show two of my works for the upcoming exhibition.
06:14 – 06:16
One of the two works is titled “Chasing lips”
06:18 – 06:20
and the other is called “A missed joke”
06:23 – 06:34
These paintings reflect my experience navigating in the Deaf community and the hearing world. To fit in with the hearing world I had to learn to lip-read,
06:35 – 06:38
hence the painting “Chasing Lips” is a depiction of the effort I had make to find my place through lip-reading people.
06:38 - 06:42
That was the point I was trying to make with that artwork and I’m really excited to show it.
06:43 – 06:47
The second painting – “Missed Joke” explores a similar theme to the first in that it depicts how difficult it is for
06:47 - 06:56
a Deaf person to follow conversation in a group setting, with the struggle to keep up with what is being said.
06:56 – 06:59
When someone makes a joke, everyone laughs and sight of their mouths opening wide with laughter
06:59 – 07:05 *
makes it glaringly obvious that I have missed the joke. It makes me feel left out.
07:05 – 07:12
So these paintings are an expression of how I feel in the hearing world, our struggles and how we persist. So… yep!
