Launch of Kriol Baibul
Thrilled to be able to read the Bible in their own tongue, these people have the first complete Bible in an Australian indigenous language. Photo courtesy CMS
The text on the photo is Psalm 146:1,2 from the Kriol Baibul. Photo courtesy CMS
Photo courtesy CMS
On Saturday 5 May the first complete Bible in an Australian indigenous language was launched at Katherine in the Northern Territory.
Kriol is the native tongue of over 30,000 people in the north of Australia - a spoken-only language until 1972 when the first work began on the development of a written language. By 1980 a team of translators drawn from Summer Institute of Linguistics, CMS missionaries and eleven aboriginal translators was working on a translation of the New Testament, which was completed in 1991. A further fifteen years of work resulted in completion of the Old Testament, soon followed by release of the complete Kriol Bible in late 2006.
Simultaneously with the Katherine celebration, similar events took place around Australia, with our own at St Mark's, Bellerive, jointly sponsored by the local branches of the Church Missionary and Bible Societies.
The many supporters who attended...
- watched an audio-visual of the background story with its difficult translation work and patient perseverance lasting over thirty years,
- marvelled at the commitment of aboriginal translators, eleven of whom completed the SIL Certificate in Translating course whilst working on the Kriol Bible,
- rejoiced in the award of AM (Order of Australia) in 2007, to senior translators, CMS missionaries since 1963, Gwen & Lance Tremlett ,
- and delighted in learning to sing and pray in Kriol.
This remarkable achievement places scripture within reach of thousands of aboriginal Christians and opens the way to further translation of the Bible into other spoken languages.
We praise God for faithful work already completed...with greater things to come! We pray for the use of these scriptures among existing church groups. We look forward to outreach into untouched communities.