The quiet flame
People
Dr Donovan Cresdee was born into a deaf family where silence was never absent, it was life itself.
With both parents and siblings deaf, his first language was Auslan, the visual language that shaped the rhythm of his early childhood.
That world changed when he entered school. “No hands. Speak like hearing children,” the nuns instructed.
Each slip into sign language was met with punishment. What had once been his natural expression was replaced with silence – first enforced, then internalised.
By the age of eight, Cresdee left that school, but the silence followed.
“It was as if my true self had been locked away,” he recalls.
Over time, however, the silence became something else: a source of resilience and, eventually, purpose.
Through study and reflection, Cresdee rebuilt both his language and his identity. His desk filled with theology texts and histories of the deaf community. In them, he found not only knowledge but also the voice that had once been denied.
Writing and advocacy became his way of telling a story long overlooked – the struggles of deaf people, their faith and their resistance against systems that sought to erase them.
Although often described as quiet, Cresdee sees his reserve differently. “My quietness is not emptiness – it is depth,” he explains.
Beneath that quiet burns a steady flame, carrying the memory of his father, who once petitioned the Bishop of Adelaide to establish a church for the deaf, and carrying hope that future generations will not endure the deprivation he once knew.
Today, Cresdee is more than a survivor of silence. He has become a storyteller, a keeper of memory and an advocate for justice, turning deprivation into testimony and testimony into light.
Actively involved in the South Australian Deaf Catholic Community since childhood, he attended his first deaf Mass at the age of four.
In recent years, he has taken on a leadership role, presenting reflections and facilitating group discussions. Looking ahead, he plans to expand his work nationally, supporting deaf Australians who continue to face language barriers and advocating for recognition of their cultural and spiritual identity.
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