Despite all the anxiety-riddled brouhaha that the global pandemic has beset upon us all, one of the great (and few) shining lights has been the, well, light shining upon the string of Auslan interpreters who have gamely stood next to Premiers and Chief Health Officers and interpreted complex, often rapid-fire information on the fly. The work they do is absolutely vital, and putting them on such a prominent national platform so regularly normalises things in a rapid fire manner the likes of which has scarcely been seen before in Australian media. Also, sometimes they have to interpret some of the absolutely batshit things that people say, and it rules.
Case in point: Today’s deeply strange saga of two men in NSW who were sunbaking naked south of Sydney, apparently got startled by a deer, and fled into the forest of a nearby national park before becoming hopelessly lost.
That, I cannot stress enough, is a real news story that actually happened.
The story came to public light today, because not only did the men require a police rescue, they were subsequently fined $1,000 each for travelling outside of the Greater Sydney area in defiance of current lockdown and public health orders.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller detailed the story in this morning’s press conference.
And that meant an Auslan interpreter had to sign their way through it.
Which, in this case, meant interpreting the phrases “sunbaking naked,” “startled by a deer,” and “ran into the National Forest.”
Fair play to them, it’s hard to interpret any of this as meaning anything else.
🦌🍆🍑 TFW you and your mate sunbake naked on a beach, get startled by a deer, run into a national park and get lost, require SES and police assistance, and then get fined $1000 each because you breached Sydney’s COVID public health orders pic.twitter.com/U9q0ZD6oVM
— Ben Grubb 🐛 (@bengrubb) June 28, 2021
Just incredible stuff all around. You truly love to see it.
This latest addition to the Auslan Interpreters Kick Ass files follows on from one of the team who interprets for Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, who captured the attention of panicked Melburnians for being an expressive king whomsteth we stan.
Really, some top tier work being done right across the country at the moment. Phenomenal gear.
