Wales’ 16th Purple Plaque marks the life and work Welsh poet and activist in the deaf community Dorothy (‘Dot’) Miles. She was a pioneer of deaf poetry writing and signing in her own style in English, British Sign Language and American Sign Language. Her work is recognised as laying the foundations for the modern sign language poetry art form in both the UK and the US.
Dorothy (19 August 1931 – 30 January 1993) was born in Holywell, Flintshire and grew up in West Rhyl. She was born hearing but became deaf after contracting meningitis as a child. She attended the Manchester School for Deaf children. In her 20s she won a scholarship to Gallaudet University in Washington DC (the leading American university for the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing people) where she won prizes for prose writing, poetry and acting.
She went on to have a career in the arts, performing with the US National Theatre for the Deaf making a splash wherever they toured. After 20 years in the US, Dorothy returned to the UK to become the first woman to write and perform deaf poetry (‘sign poetry’) teaching deaf and hearing people, of the power and importance of Sign language as a true and potent language. An example of how she did this is at the end; Language for the Eye.
She worked on the BBC TV’s Open Door programme and helped to further develop deaf programming at the BBC including See Hear television series, a long-running TV magazine programme highlighting issues affecting the deaf community.
by Dorothy Miles
Hold a tree in the palm of your hand,
or topple it with a crash.
Sail a boat on finger waves,
or sink it with a splash.
From you finger tips see a frog leap,
at a passing butterfly.
The word becomes the picture in the language for the eye.
Follow the sun from rise to set,
or bounce it like a ball.
Catch a fish in a fishing net,
or swallow it bones and all.
Make traffic scurry, or airplanes fly,
and people meet and part.
The word becomes the action in this language of the heart.
Mae’r 16eg Plac Porffor yng Nghymru’n nodi bywyd a gwaith y bardd a’r ymgyrchydd ymhlith y gymuded fyddar, Dorothy (‘Dot’) Miles. Roedd hi’n arloesi wrth gyfansoddi barddoniaeth fyddar y byddai’n ei hysgrifennu a’i harwyddo yn ei harddull ei hun yn Saesneg, Iaith Arwyddo Prydain ac Iaith Arwyddo America. Dywedir i’w gwaith osod y seiliau ar gyfer barddoniaeth arwyddo fel ffurf gelfyddydol fodern yn y DU ac yn UDA.
Ganed Dorothy (19 Awst 1931 – 30 Ionawr 1993) yn Nhreffynnon, Sir y Fflint a maged hi yn y Rhyl. Pan aned hi medrai glywed, ond collodd ei chlyw ar ôl dal llid yr ymennydd yn blentyn. Aeth i Ysgol Plant Byddar Manceinion ac yn ei dauddegau enillodd ysgoloriaeth i Brifysgol Gallaudet yn Washington DC (y brifysgol fwyaf blaenllaw yn America ar gyfer addysg pobl fyddar a thrwm eu clyw) lle yr enillodd hi wobrau am ysgrifennu rhyddiaith a barddoniaeth ac am actio.
Aeth ymlaen i gael gyrfa yn y celfyddydau a pherfformio gyda Theatr Genedlaethol yr UD ar gyfer pobl fyddar gan greu argraff fawr ble bynnag y bydden nhw’n teithio. Ar ôl treulio 20 mlynedd yn yr UD, dychwelodd Dorothy i’r DU, a hi oedd y fenyw gyntaf i ysgrifennu a pherfformio ei barddoniaeth fyddar (‘barddoniaeth arwyddo’) gan addysgu pobl fyddar a’r rhai sy’n clywed am bwysigrwydd Iaith Arwyddo fel gwir iaith rymus a mynegiannol. Ceir enghraifft o’r modd y gwnaeth hyn isod.
Gweithiodd Dorothy ar raglen deledu’r BBC, ‘Open Door’ a bu’n helpu datblygu rhaglenni i bobl fyddar ar y BBC, gan gynnwys y rhaglen gyfres deledu y ‘See Hear’, cyfres hirhoedlog yn trafod materion yn effeithio ar y gymuned fyddar.