April 11-12, 2022 was the first annual #DHHproud event sponsored by the Provincial Outreach Program – Deaf and Hard of Hearing (POPDHH). It was hosted online for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students throughout BC. April 11 was the Showcase which was a contest designed for DHH youth to gain experience in public presentation, boost self-expression, gain self-assurance, and improve communication skills. The contest was open to DHH students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in BC. There were 3 categories of competition: ASL Poetry, DE’VIA (Deaf View Image Art) and Spotlight, a presentation on the theme “What makes you proud to be Deaf or Hard of Hearing”. April 12 was Friendship Day where students were led through an online workshop by Justin Perez, a Visual Vernacular Performance Artist.
Rocky Mountain School District No. 6 is proud to announce that Sarah Metzler won second place in the DE’VIA Art Competition! Sarah is a Grade 8 student at Selkirk Secondary School. Her artwork had to deal with some aspect of deaf history, deaf culture, the deaf community, or ASL, related to the theme; or some aspect of the hard of hearing identity, struggles, successes related to the theme. Here is Sarah’s art and artist statement explaining her work:
I chose to paint this image because of what a butterfly symbolizes to me and many others. Most butterflies are hard of hearing or deaf. Adult butterflies use the veins in their wings to hear; and use their wings, veins, and legs to communicate messages between themselves and other species, by rubbing or clicking them together. Like one would use a hearing aid to hear and ASL to communicate with other DHH people, family, and friends. Therefore, butterflies are often used as a symbol of the DHH community. I personally love this comparison. I think it is cool to relate to something that is so different to me and see how similar butterflies are to me in how they navigate our world. Butterflies are an animal that I have loved far before I found out they are hard of hearing like me.