Shawn Phua (He/Him/His)
Auslan Teacher/Tutor & Deaf Community advocate
Auslanism
Australia
About Shawn Phua
Shawn Phua (He / Him / His) is a profoundly Deaf, Asian-Australian man in his 30s who has lived in Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia, for most of his life. He is fluent in Auslan and English, and does not lip-read or speak. Shawn was born to Malaysian-Chinese hearing parents in a multilingual family where English is their fourth language after Cantonese, Malay/Bahasa Malaysia, and Mandarin. Shawn and his parents communicate in a mixture of signs from Auslan, Australian Signed English, Malaysian Sign Language (Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia – BIM), and Singaporean Sign Language (SgSL) at home. Shawn has experience in teaching/tutoring and supporting a wide range of people, including families of Deaf children, hearing Auslan students, participants from National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), migrants, refugees, adults and seniors from various communities. He holds multiple screening checks and working with children cards across different Australian states and territories. Shawn enjoys collecting resources about different sign languages, such as dictionaries, books, posters and flyers. He also like learning signs, alphabets and numbers from other sign languages, especially when he meets Deaf visitors from other countries or Deaf First Nations Australians, migrants and refugees in Australia.