After two weeks of working on wildlife and rainforest sanctuaries with the WWOOF program throughout the holidays, we have arrived at the Gold Coast. Queensland is known as the "sunshine" state, but is currently being bombarded with much needed heavy rains and the forecast doesn't look to change. The weather was no deterrent, however, for the 1200+ people who gathered at tonight's opening ceremony to honor the 700 athletes that will compete in this weeks games.
All five Australian states as well as New Zealand will challenge each other in Track n Field Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Darts, Eight Ball, Golf, Lawn Bowling, Netball, Squash, Swimming, Tennis, and Tenpin Bowling. The games are a long standing tradition since the late 1800s when New South Wales and Queensland first went head to head in a game of cricket.
After signing the Australian National Anthem, Aboriginals of Australia shared a visual storytelling performance set to drums. Local Maoris from New Zealand also performed the infamous and intimidating "haka" war dance. A team of 6-8 interpreters and CART captionists made tonight's event accessible to all hearing and deaf people. Throughout the week, social events such as a deaf joke comedy competition, signing karaoke, and a debate on hot topics in the deaf community will be held. We are pumped to be here this week for the games, and also have the opportunity to meet and interview many leaders in the Australian deaf community.
For more information, visit http://www.austdeafgames.org.au
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