Reframing the narrative—Navigating self-representation: Indigenous Deaf people

This article introduces Indigenous Deaf people in North America, and how the use of “disability” as a term does not fit their culture, history, and sign language. The uniqueness of the group that identifies with both Deaf and Indigenous cultures does not walk in two worlds, as is commonly stated among hearing Indigenous people and literature.Rather, they walk in four worlds with four different identities. Indigenous Deaf people, as they navigate their own self-representation with Deaf culture and sign language, from Deaf residential schools and Indigenous communities, have to relearn their own Indigenous culture, history, and practices. The term D/deaf comes from the identity they grew up with. With a capitalized D, it means they grew up in a culturally Deaf environment and shared-signing community, while the lower-case variant refers to those who did not have exposure to a Deaf cultural environment.