1948: Helen Keller

January 12, 2021

By AHNZ

Famous deaf and blind social activist, Helen Keller, remains a role model for disabled people. She visited New Zealand in 1948 and visited deaf schools in Auckland and Christchurch. She also visited the house for idiots in Wellington (image left, featuring Prime Minister Peter Fraser.)

Only a couple of days ago I was reading my old primary school notes, a lesson about the 5 senses: “The most important blind person was Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan.”

Then, today, the viral conspiracy theory reached me that Keller was a fake! Sullivan’s puppet!

How could she have become disabled then recover so well as learn multiple languages, give speeches, write books? Well, at 19 months your toddler is well on their way to building a vocabulary and solving problems proto-scientifically. This cognitive process will continue even if you take away sight and hearing.

Tutoring people in such a condition was a well established profession by Keller’s time, even in New Zealand. Just check out this earlier AHNZ post: Silencing the Deaf.

Why was Keller an SJW? Coming of age in the 1910s makes most every woman an SJW. So much so that I call this era Dominion Victimhood Culture in New Zealand.

“Helen Keller was given an official welcome at Parliament House on Monday afternoon.

“The Prime Minister, Mr. P. Fraser, said that Miss Iteller was one of the greatest and most distinguished women ever welcomed to New Zealand.

“The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry, said he looked on Miss Keller as the greatest, person in tlie world.

“The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, said she brought a message of confidence, faith, and hope.”- Hutt News, 4 August 1948; Papers Past

To be tutored closely by a woman with an English accent, well…what other accent would you expect Keller to develop? Forest Gump? If you think the accent is weird it’s her tutor you need to interrogate who spoke the same way.

To watch a Keller video we see her speaking to the same state of the art standard deaf people can still reach today. Eg. Marlee Matlin from The West Wing.

So, no, I don’t think Helen Keller had a handler or that New Zealand was being tricked in 1948. She was the real deal.

Objection: How can this Alabama woman have an English accent?

Response: Everyone has an accent, even those vocally trained.

What accent would you accept in a woman trained with deliberate speech by someone with an English-sounding accent in the Antebellum South in the late 1800s?

There is so much Scepticism Culture around these days, no wonder people sometimes go too far.

—
Image ref. Keller in NZ; Helen Keller Archive; www.afb.org

note: Keller arrived in New Zealand on 28/7/1948 Ref. Northern Advocate 29 July 1948, Papers Past

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