What Does the Sea Sound Like? Memoirs of a Coda (Child of Deaf Adults)

Evie Mahoney is a CODA, a Child Of Deaf Adults, raised in Auckland, New Zealand. She is the eldest of six hearing children. Being first born her early life was mainly in a deaf environment and she was sensitive to how hearing people outside that environment reacted to her family. She lived on the edge between the two cultures and naturally slipped into the role of interpreter, from a young age, ensuring the Deaf and Hearing understood each other when communicating. While she learnt the values of her deaf parents with their perception of the mainstream hearing world, she also learnt the different values of the hearing world that she belonged to. Six decades later Evie is happy to have been raised by inspiring parents and enjoys the special dimension the deaf culture has given her. She has seen communication become easier for the Deaf with New Zealand Sign Language now being an official language and becoming a more accepted form of communication. Modern technology is also providing visual communication options for the Deaf. Nevertheless, Evie sees attitudes of the Hearing towards the Deaf still having a long way to go.