First Translation of Bible into Indigenous Australian Language Complete

Australia's first complete translation of the Kriol Baibul language has been finished and now the final draft is being checked in preparation for publication in 2007. This project has been 27 years in the making.

Kriol is the language spoken by thousands of Aboriginal people in northern and north-western Australia. Many Aboriginal people living in the region between Katherine, the Roper River and the southern Gulf of Carpentaria and the Kimberley in Western Australia speak Kriol as a first language. Many more Aboriginals in other parts of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia speak Kriol as a second or third language.

Earlier editions of the Kriol had been published in the past containing selected books from the bible, some of which are still in use today. However this is the first time in which all of the New and Old Testament has been completed.

The translation was undertaken by a group of Aboriginal Christians and missionaries in the Northern Territory along with support from organisations such as Bible Society in Australia, Wycliffe's Sister Organisation and other Church agencies.

Dr Peter J Carroll, coordinator of translation and text from Bible Society Australia had stated how translations into the many aboriginal languages were complex.

"All translations are difficult when you are matching thought patterns with two different cultures", said Dr Caroll.

"In English we use the word heart a lot and we attach to the body part a lot of emotion. We talk of a loving God, one we can love with all our heart, but in the Aboriginal language of Kunwinjku it's meaningless. Instead we say that you love God with all your insides or, if you like, your inner being."






Ting Xue
Christian Today Correspondent