The important role of community translation

Ineke will explore the role of community translation and interpreting in the promotion of language access, based on her background as a translator, interpreter, health professional and interpreting and translation researcher and educator. She will share some of her research as a Fulbright New Zealand Scholar (Public Health) at the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, WA, where she looked at the role of bilingual patient navigators, who worked to empower families to understand and make decisions about their children’s care.

Ineke will outline different approaches to translation and interpreter education together with her wish list for ensuring that everyone (users of healthcare, health professionals and interpreters) is aware of the interpreter role.

Lastly, she will touch on health translation and issues which arose during New Zealand’s COVID-19 pandemic response, when the government was trying to ensure very diverse ethnic communities had access to government guidelines.

More on the speaker

Ineke Crezee, PhD, is Aotearoa New Zealand’s first professor in interpreting and translation. She completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in English language and literature, as well as a 4-year ‘Diploma’ and a Master’s degree in Translation Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Some of her most powerful learning experiences came when she was a student nurse in a large general hospital in Amsterdam, interacting with many migrant patients.

After arriving in New Zealand in 1989 she became involved in developing health interpreting courses on the heels of the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ largescale cervical cancer inquiry. She has published extensively on interpreter and translator education and continues to work as a translator, interpreter and educator.

Refreshments will be served after the address.

For more information, please email sue.chapman@aut.ac.nz