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Ian Maxwell Bruce was born on the 31st of July, 1944. He was born Deaf and had a twin who was hearing.  His story follows him down to Tasmania, where at the age of 5 he moved with his family and attended the Hobart Deaf School.

In 1960 he gained an apprenticeship with the company High Class Furniture. He entered an apprenticeship competition in 1964 with 46 other applicants. Of the 47, Ian and four others won bursaries. His apprenticeship award was a bursary of 75 pounds. Out of those 47 applicants, Ian was the only one who was Deaf.

He went on with the help of his father, an engineer to build seven small sailing yachts, working as a team sharing their tools and skills. Ian crewed one of the yachts, “L’hirondelle’ which won both a race and the award for the most beautiful boat.

Over his working career he has built many fine pieces of furniture. The picture above shows Ian working on a jewellery box, hand making the pins and sockets for the dovetail joints for the boxes. Making jewellery boxes is one of Ian’s hobbies.

Some of Ian’s boxes he has hand carved and others he inlays with beautiful banding and handmade stars. Some of the woods he uses includes Cedar, Hoop Pine, Tasmanian Oak, Tasmanian Blackwood, Huon Pine and Beechwood.

Thank you Ian for sharing your story.

AUSIT Vice-President Barbara McGIlvray and Past President Moreno Giovannoni provide and AUSIT perspective on the APESMA launch

The launch of the ‘Many Languages, One Voice’ campaign on 25 July at Trades Hall in Carlton attracted about 130 participants, many of them AUSIT members.

AUSIT was well represented at the committee level, with Barbara McGIlvray (AUSIT National Vice-President), Meredith Bartlett (Vic/Tas Branch Chair), John Gare (Vic/Tas Treasurer) and other Vic/Tas committee members in attendance, as were professional stalwarts such as Adolfo Gentile (former President of the International Federation of Translators), AUSIT Past President Moreno Giovannoni, Niki Baras and Rita Wilson. John Beever of NAATI was there and was also acknowledged, as were representatives of the big agencies, All Graduates and VITS Languagelink. AUSIT’s support of this APESMA (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia) campaign on behalf of interpreters and translators, as well as the presence of the National Vice-President, was acknowledged from the stage.

The APESMA T&I Committee and officials, including Victorian Director Bede Payne, Dr Kim Rickard, who wrote the ‘Lost in Translation’ industry report, union organisers April Byrne and Daniel Francis, and Fiona Simpson, who looks after PR had clearly put a lot of work to make the launch a success.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe gave an excellent keynote speech linking the situation in our profession to the bigger insecure-work picture (he chairs a committee currently looking into the insecure work situation in Australia), and said he would continue to support the campaign.

Serbian interpreter Bisa Surla said all the things we’ve been hearing for many years about a lack of recognition and less than professional treatment of community interpreters.
The venue was wonderful: the Bella Bar of Trades Hall, located up old stone stars to a dimly lit room with an old fashioned bar, dark cream walls, a black stage, and strings of lights around the walls, felt just like an old music hall. We all sat at small round candlelit tables.

Whats the next step? APESMA’s Victorian Director Bede Payne says he now wants to sit down with AUSIT and ASLIA representatives, plus all other industry participants to discuss our common goals.
The community interpreting sector in particular needs the support of a professional union, and it seems this is our best chance in a long while to bring about much needed change. We would encourage AUSIT members from around Australia to join APESMA and help bring about that change.

For further reading, try these links:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/push-to-translate-vital-job-as-career-2012072422nj5.html
www.apesma.com.au/newsviews/latest/Presentation_Bisa_Surla.pdf
http://issuu.com/barriers/docs/lost_in_translation?mode=windows&pageNumber=1
www.apesma.com.au/newsviews/latest/Brian_Howe_speech_MLOV.pdf

Article originally written and published in AUSIT In Touch magazine

He undertook the Industrial course which consisted of English, Maths A, Maths B, Geometrical Drawing, Woodwork, Metal Work, Trade Drawing, Physics and Chemistry.

He was also heavily involved in athletics. Ian ran the 800 yard cross country as well as playing tennis in the summer and Australian Rules Football in the winter.

During the Christmas break Nicole Foster travelled to Vietnam with her family. During her travels, Nicole met a group of Deaf people working in a shop and was excited to learn she could communicate with them. Her children who also knew some signs were delighted to tell them their names, ages and jumped around like Kangaroos to tell them they were from Australia. Many signs are universal and the smiles on everyone’s face were priceless.

The shop was in a popular tourist destination at a stop on the way to Halong Bay. If other interpreters were to visit this particular spot, Nicole would encourage you to stop into the large hand crafted gift and marble statue warehouse. Many of the Deaf staff there were working on embroidered pictures.

Nicole had said a Deaf friend visited a few months earlier and told her about the group. The group have limited contact with others who can sign. Nicole thought it was a good idea to visit them.

Knowing sign language and being able to read people’s body language was a great tool for Nicole to have when communicating with people overseas.

Stay Safe during the Holiday Period

Warmest Regards

The Team @ NABS