Growing up in a family with two deaf parents, Amelia intimately understands the communication barriers that deaf communities face, where sign language is often the primary mode of interaction.

“It wasn’t until I went to kindergarten that I noticed there were hearing people out there. I was signing to everyone, and I realised, ‘oh, they’re speaking to me’ so I had to speak back and learn how to speak properly.”

“Everything was very noisy, but at home I was used to everything being so quiet – but it never felt different to me because it was what I grew up with.”

Amelia was born and raised in Brisbane but has family in Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait who will often get together for big Christmas celebrations either in Brisbane or on the islands.

She started a family young with her partner and has three children who are now 21, 17 and 6 who have also learnt to sign.

Recently, Amelia  also played a vital support role at home, caring for her partner who experienced ill mental health but is now on the road to recovery.

“It’s hard to watch someone you love through [ill mental health] and it’s probably one of the hardest things I have dealt with because we were young parents growing up together,and we have accomplished so many things together and to see him that unwell was really painful.”  

In her downtime Amelia plays Rugby League for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls as the fullback, which she’s been doing for the past 10 years and is passionate about sharing her skills with the younger women coming through. 

Amelia’s role at RFQ sees her supporting both hearing and deaf clients through the NDIS Core Supports program, a role that she finds challenging but incredibly rewarding and enables her to utilise her lived experience with her parents.

“[Helping others] is something I have really wanted to do my whole life and every day with clients is different. Supporting clients shopping, going to appointments, some like to go outdoors and do a bit of cooking – every day is different and that’s what I love about the role too.”

“It’s a challenging role and there are communication barriers for my deaf clients when we go to appointments. I feel I can assist them with the communication they need to make these things less stressful and enable my clients to access the services they need.”

“RFQ is one of the only organisations I know of that has a core space just for deaf clients. There aren’t many organisations that offer that to NDIS clients and that’s unique.”

“I know what it’s like, not to be deaf, but what they [the clients] go through. You just have to think about that stuff when you are out there in the world, that’s just what I do, trying to find a shared understanding.”