Cassowary Crossing Connections PAPER Print

When sign language dialects are shared between cultures they weave a more meaningful vocabulary of storytelling.

Two young deaf girls come across a family of cassowaries at babinda boulders the younger of the two questions what the sign is for the local native bird. She’s surprised to find out there isn’t a formal sign in Auslan (Australian sign language) instead the older girl takes the opportunity to share the sign from her own dialect of indigenous sign language. That mimics the casque, the horn like structure on the top of the cassowaries head as well as the bobbing movement they make as they walk through the rain forest.

Based on a real experience and depicted through paint with permission from a local deaf elder.