Drisana Levitzke-Gray (born 1993 [1] ) is an Australian disability rights campaigner from Perth, Western Australia. She is an advocate for deaf culture, and a native speaker of Auslan. [2] In 2015, she was the Young Australian of the Year. [3]
Drisana Levitzke-Gray (born 1993 [1] ) is an Australian disability rights campaigner from Perth, Western Australia. She is an advocate for deaf culture, and a native speaker of Auslan. [2] In 2015, she was the Young Australian of the Year. [3]
Levitzke-Gray was born from a line of deaf women, and is the fifth woman on her line to be deaf or partially deaf: great, great-grandmother Eva Johnston, her daughter Dorothy Shaw, Danielle Shaw, Patricia Levitzke-Gray, and herself. [2] Her father is also deaf, and she has a deaf brother. [2]
Levitzke-Gray was selected in 2011 by Deaf Australia to attend the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section Leadership Camp in Durban, South Africa, and the World Federation of the Deaf General Assembly. [2]
Levitzke-Gray attended the Frontrunners [4] international deaf youth leadership course in 2012 and 2013.
In January 2014, Levitzke-Gray was the first deaf person in Western Australia and Australia to participate in jury duty. [5]
Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AO is an Australian diplomat and former politician. Starting her career in student politics, she became an advisor to the Australian Democrats and was appointed to the Australian Senate in 1995 at the age of 26. At the time, she was the youngest woman to serve in federal Parliament. She went on to become deputy leader of the Democrats in 1997 and then federal leader from 2001 to 2002. She retired from the Senate in 2008 as the longest-serving senator from her party.
Marlee Matlin is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Auslan is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from spoken English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time.
Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Curtin from 1998 to 2019. She has been the chancellor of the Australian National University since January 2020.
Nova Maree Peris is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As part of the Australian women's field hockey (Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal. She later switched sports to sprinting and went to the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 2000 Olympic Games. She was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2013 federal election, after then Prime Minister Julia Gillard named her as a "captain's pick", installing her as the preselected Labor candidate over incumbent Labor senator Trish Crossin. She retired from the Senate in 2016.
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Gary Gray, Australian former politician and Australia's Ambassador to Ireland, was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representative for the Division of Brand in Western Australia in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. On 25 March 2013, Gray was appointed to the Australian Cabinet as the Minister for Resources and Energy, the Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Small Business. From 2010 until 2013, Gray served as the Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity.
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Elizabeth Mettam is an Australian politician. She has been the Liberal member for Vasse in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since a by-election on 18 October 2014. She has been the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party since January 2023 and was the deputy leader of the party from December 2020 to January 2023. At the 2021 state election, she was one of only two Liberal MLAs to retain their seat, the other being David Honey.
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