Welcome to SUP4DCA YouTube video!

“We should get you to sign an introductory video in Auslan for YouTube”, Ash said. “You can sign can’t you?”

“Of course I can”, I replied in an instant, my sister was deaf, so of course I could sign.

That was the plan, I would quickly throw together a few signs and with in a day or two, we would post the video...

Oh how wrong we were.

After trying to self interpret for a total of 5 minutes and failing to come up with signs for about 80% of the words in the first two sentences, I was needless to say a little disillusioned. I knew how to sign didn’t I?

After a few more dismal attempts and no further luck, I realised I was in denial. It turns out that having a deaf sister allows you to sign about as well as you could hope to speak French after eating French toast.

Growing up Cate was always able to communicate so well orally, that there was never any pressure for me to learn sign language. I had still taken Auslan courses when I was young, giving me the basics, but attempting to translate the video let it dawn on me that the bare minimum doesn't cut it.

So there was the answer, put in some work and achieve what we wanted.

A few Skype calls with Cate and I had the script translated into Auslan and it even had correct Auslan grammar too! (Luckily Cate was a fantastic teacher and she really took the time to help).

Then it was Ash's turn to be challenged.

After 3 failed attempts of filming at home with a creased sheet as a backdrop and terrible low lighting, she decided that we could do better, and if we could do better why wouldn't we do it?

So Ash booked a conference room at a hotel and restarted the filming process. Many hours of filming and editing later we finally came up with the video you can see online.

It's not perfect, but we are proud of it.

For us it was more than just a video, it's a little taster of what's to come.

Much like our overall goal with this trip, we've set our sights high. Achieving the bare minimum isn't something that sits well with either Ash or I. We are more than happy to put in the work, if it means we achieve our goal.

Gaining sponsors, promoting our story, paddling Australia's longest river system, none of it will be easy. But at the end, we can't wait to look back and say we are proud of what we did.

We hope you enjoy watching the video, and remember to please share/like/interact with us, so our story gets bigger and better!

#Welcome #Video #YouTube #Auslan