Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

72 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

universal character of sign language, as differences in national sign languages are

easily bridged (Mottez, 1993). This case study revealed that empowered transna-

tional deaf people “insurrected” Flemish local “subjugated [deaf] knowledges”

(Pease, 2002, p. 33) through a common language (Mottez, 1993) and a common

global deaf experience (Murray, 2008).

WAKInG UP AnD THE CIRCLE

oF DEAF EMPoWERMEnT

What happens to deaf identities when deaf people experience this process of deaf

empowerment? In my research, the analysis of the life stories collected and con-

firmed by the research participants in lectures and discussions revealed that deaf

empowerment can be conceptualized as a circle of stages, or transitions, in their

identities (yang, 2000). When coming into contact with deaf cultural rhetoric and

learning that sign language natural language, deaf hearing equal, deaf can, and so on

(see also Jankowski, 1997), Flemish deaf people wake up and experience a change

in their lives. That moment of awakening is indicated by the Flemish signs wake up

and turn-a-button-in-the-head as shown in Figure 3.2. This figure shows a light sym-

bolizing the waking up and transformation that deaf people experience, dividing

their lives into stages of before and after this change. Coming into contact with deaf

cultural rhetoric makes deaf people wake up—deconstructing and reconstructing

their lives and leading them toward fire, the Flemish sign for deaf activism. Gaby

Figure 3.2. Wake up.

Note. Figure 3.2 was designed by dotplus, Belgium. Copyright © 2005 by

Goedele De Clerck.

Before

Change

Now

Life

WAKE UP