Respecting indigenous/local sign langauges (was: @ handed in oz)

[BARBARA GERNER DE GARCIA]

After lurking practically forever on this list I have to jump in. I agree with
Richard A. that there is a tendency by some - linguists and others - to seee
American Sign Language, ASL as "superior" and these folks usually gave give
a laundry list of reasons.  I have been concerned with this issue for many
years since my first contacts outside the U.S. with Deaf communities in the
Caribbean.
        I applaud the work of those who are working hard to study their
local Sign Languages especially in developing countries which have a legacy of
linguistic colonialism and imperialism for their spoken languages which carry
over to Signed Languages as well. Two presentations of the  98 TISLR conference
addressed this topic - Constanze Schmaling, Hamburg University 'ASL in northern
 Nigeria: Will Hausa Sign Language survive?' and
Debra Aarons, University of Stellenbosch and Ruth Morgan, Community Agency for
 Social Enquiry 'The linguistic structure of South African
      Sign Language after apartheid'
        But more than the devaluation of the Sign Languages in such communities
is the devaluation and dehumanization of the Deaf people who use these
languages (a point I explore in a paper I published last year "Lenguaje e
identidad" El latino sordo en los Estados Unidos"El Bilinguismo de los
 Sordos,1.(3). Bogota, Colombia. [Language and identity: The Deaf Latino in the
 United States.  Bilingualism of the Deaf.]
There is a tendency to label some Deaf people as having no language or
"alingual" (sic) when the problem may be that we do not know their language.
This is not to say that Deaf individuals don't grow up isolated with limited
expressive signs - but my observation has been that we assume what we see
a Deaf person sign is or is not really "a langauge" based on things such as
their educational level, and racial and national origen. Why is it that the
enslaved Deaf Mexicans in NY were repeatedly described as unable to communicate
when the key to the uncovering of their situation was that some of those
very people went repeatedly to the police and finally found a way to reveal
the scheme that was imprisoning them. They saved themselves but they were
never perceived as capable of solving their own dilemma.
        I won't go on - just had to jump in when I read Richard A's comments.
Barbara Gerner de Garcia
gallaudet University