Sister Macrina Donahue, the Dominican nun who served for 40 years as the principal of a school for the deaf, was posthumously honoured with a blue plaque from the Cape Town Heritage Foundation on Wednesday.
The Dominican Grimley Institute for the Deaf, dating back to 1863, was the forerunner of the Seven Steps Academy for the Deaf.
In 1979, the school relocated to Hout Bay, and in 2021, it changed its name to Seven Steps when it moved to Zonnebloem.
Sister Macrina dedicated 60 years of her life to the education of deaf children through the aural/oral teaching method: 40 years as the principal of the school for the deaf and a further 20 supervising the hostel and mentoring those who followed in her footsteps, according to Louise Dyamond, a teacher at the school.
“Sister Mac retired from teaching in 2003 but remained a pillar of strength to the school and its vision of empowering deaf youth. Sister Mac continued to serve on the school’s governing body until shortly before her death in 2020,” Ms Dyamond said.
A blue plaque is a globally recognised method of commemorating significant events, sites, or people and there are general history blue plaques all over Cape Town, many awarded to notable schools and historical buildings.
According to Andrew Jones, deputy chair of the Cape Town Heritage Foundation, there are several criteria that determine who receives a blue plaque.
“We think it’s amazing work that Sister Mac did, and the teachers that are at Seven Steps now, but she had long years of service, and she improved their academic standards. When she joined, they only went up to Standard 8, but she took it to Standard 10,” said Mr Jones.
“She did not see being deaf or hard of hearing as a disability, and she changed the way the deaf kids saw themselves, and she did a lot for them when it came to education, and she did it in a nice way.”
Sister Francis, who worked with Sister Macrina from 1970 to 1998, said it was wonderful to see her former colleague honoured.
“She had great vision and was totally dedicated to the children. Everything she did was for the children. She encouraged everyone to reach their potential, teachers included, and she gave us opportunities to develop, to reach our full potential.”
Lee-Ann Kannemeyer, the school’s principal, said she had turned to Sister Macrina for answers.
“When I first became acting principal and I was stuck in making a decision, or needing advice around a sticky situation, I knew that Sister Mac always had the perfect, precise, logical solution for me. Right up to this day, I still ask myself, ‘What would Sister Mac do?’”
Ms Kannemeyer then read a letter written by Sister Mac on April 2, 1965, about the difficulties that the deaf children face.
“Fortunately for the deaf child of today,” said the letter, “there are modern schools – not institutions – to cater for his special needs; there are special teachers and therapists many of whom spend their entire lives striving to improve the lot of the deaf.
“For there is but one ‘salvation’ for a deaf child, and that is education – education that begins with the construction of an effective two-way communication between himself and the environment – education, in short, that provides him with language.
“Language alone is not the full answer, but it is the deaf child’s greatest emancipator from mental bondage. The building up of language is a slow process involving tremendous effort on the part of both the pupil and the teacher, but once the deaf child has scaled the ‘language-barrier’, he can reach the same standard as his hearing peers.
“Yet after many years of concentrated study what future can a deaf youth anticipate? How often will he be refused employment simply because of prejudice? How often will his attempts to express himself in spoken language be laughed at? How often will he return to his former teachers and ask in desperation, ‘What have I done to deserve such treatment?’”
