“I am Deaf, I am optimistic and I am a journalist”- it is three main words Kaarina Huovinen (35) uses to describe herself. She tries to find positive angle of everything, Kaarina sometimes feels invisible out of Deaf community, but still believes that not everything is lost and we as people can change things together.
“Deaf- because I feel like that’s my biggest identity. Optimistic – because I trust that not everything is lost. You can change things; you can have hope. A journalist – because at the moment, the kind of professional identity is something I’m thinking about a lot.”
Identity and background
“I’m studying journalism, here in Haaga Helia. I am from northern Finland. In my childhood, I had a lot of different experiences. I’ve lived in a lot of cities growing up and moved around a lot.”
Dream job
She chose journalism, because she always had curiosity about the world. “I wanted to know about a lot of different things and I’ve been that way my whole life, so I thought my dream job could have something to do with that.” There is also another reason why she chose journalism: “Deaf people have our own community, we have our own perspective that really isn’t being broadcasted anywhere, and we are not getting to tell our own stories and with our own conditions.” Kaarina wants to tell the stories of the people whose stories have not been told.
Deaf perspective
“On TV and different forms of media, or publicly, there aren’t a lot of people who look like me, who are like me.” According to her, it’s a problem of society that Deaf people are not involved in politics. “There has never been Deaf representation in politics or in the media. That is why it kind of feels like I’m invisible.“
Ambitions and passions
Like everyone, she has struggles in her life but still tries to find a positive side in everything. “I mean, being Deaf here in society is not easy. But we have our own language, our own culture, our own community, our own history.”
When Kaarina talks about her ambitions and passions she mentions: culture, art, documentary, and dancing. She also loves to spend time with her dogs.
Advice
She still believes that people can change things, worries about political environments and climate change, cares about equality and justice, finds positivity in being part of the Deaf community and wants to tell stories of those who remain invisible. Kaarina has an advice to people: “I really want people to ask the norms currently’. If we want to change things, we can’t do that alone. We always need each other – it is the best advice she has ever gotten, so if we want to make world a better place to live, we should question norms together and change things together.”
interview by Marith Baan
edited by Aapo Raatikainen & Marith Baan
camera: Sára Dani, Aapo Raatikainen, Xante Mertens & Tamar Chialashvili
