“I told my sister, ‘I’m not good at translating in Iwaidja,’ Serina recalls. “Then she encouraged me, ‘Well, if God is giving you this work, he’s ahead of you and he will direct you.’” Serina was one of many who gathered in Darwin for a Bible translator’s workshop at Nungalinya College in November last year.

Marisa Hylands, of Bible Society Australia, helps organise the logistics of these Bible translation workshops and admits, “There’s a constant challenge in getting people to a workshop, and on the day it’s even, ‘I don’t know who’s going to make it’. Many translators require carers; in February we tried to arrange three different carers to attend a workshop to assist a translator… and all fell through due to sickness, travel restrictions, or other logistical limitations. The fact that people get here is kind of a miracle!”

Despite challenges like these, the Short Passage Multi-Language Translation Workshop in November saw nearly 50 translators from 16 different language groups represented. Bible Society Australia’s Amy Cruickshanks and Sarah Williams assisted with translation consultancy support.

BSA’s Stuart Cameron, who manages the Aboriginal Bibles website as well as the Rev79 Bible translation software, was astonished by the number of participants and the success they had with short passage translation. He reflects on the importance of workshops like this one, saying, “Indigenous people learn by doing and the taste of translation experience means they feel they want to be more involved in the translation experience.”

These workshops meet many needs among Aboriginal Christian communities, as they provide training, community and fellowship for those working in many different languages. Another translator, Lorna, who speaks the Gurindji language said, “It’s really a pleasure being here with other language speakers from all different communities, getting to learn from each other. We are family, God’s family.” Lorna and others were encouraged to continue in their challenging and long-term task. She says, “We will … finish the Bible in our language and that will make me so proud and so happy that we’ve done it, you know. I look forward to it each year, when I come back, to be with these other brothers and sisters so we could go home and share with our families, our people.”

George, who was working in the Warumungu language also shares how important it is to meet together. “When you’ve got your team with you, like your language, they’ll lift you up. Same thing when you’re singing your gospels through your language, you know. The young people will lift you up, yeah. And you just want to keep on singing.” Workshops like these have an ongoing impact, reaching into the future and changing lives.

“Back home, I will teach God’s message for future generations,” says Theresa, who is translating into the Djambarrpuyŋu language. “So they can see and they will learn so together we will help each other and understand fully the word of God, what the word of God is saying to all of us.”

Justin’s parents encouraged him to work on Bible translation in the Golumala language. “[They] put me in this job but I’m still learning bit by bit,” he explains. During the workshop, Justin described how he was feeling: “That Scripture makes me feel excited, happy, that Scripture goes in my heart … It goes to make me strong, make me confident to speak that Scripture, and then other people can hear and they can do it too.”

In February, Bible Society Australia collaborated with the Uniting Church’s Coordinate ministry and AuSIL to run another translation workshop at Nungalinya College, this time for experienced translators. This was the first workshop for experienced translators since 2019, and 24 translators from 11 language groups flew into Darwin. Ten of these languages are spoken in Northern Region Christian Communities (NRCC) communities from Warruwi Goulburn Island and Maningrida in West Arnhem, to Milingimbi, Ramingining, Elcho and Yirrkala in North-East Arnhem.

The theme of the workshop was ‘The Names of God’ and in the first week, training was given on the names of God from the Old Testament. The second week’s focus was the names of God from the New Testament. Louise MacDonald, from the Uniting Church’s Coordinate ministry, explains, “Each morning session … translators discussed the topics in relation to their own languages. The rest of each day was devoted to translators continuing with their own projects. Everyone want[s] to see a workshop like this happen every year and then smaller workshops happening in community. The encouragement of gathering together was a blessing to everyone who attended.”

Stuart Cameron, noting the great camaraderie shared by all the languages groups represented, was also ‘blown away’ by how well the participants’ laptops were functioning. As IT support for the workshop, Stuart noted that, “The last time I saw the participants’ laptops was in 2019 in Arnhem land and I thought the laptops would be dead by now. To my utter surprise, almost all of the participants laptops were functioning and still being used for translation!”

Alanga attended the multilanguage and experienced translators’ workshop, working in the Murrinhpatha language. During the first workshop, Alanga and her team worked on translating Psalm 23. She shared, “It is so very touching because of how we live our life, and there’s the good, the bad and the ugly … we follow Jesus, follow God to get to the end of the tunnel … This Psalm, it also helps us to reflect on it, to pray on it, to remember how we can … trudge along this journey. It’s not a perfect road, it’s sort of a zigzag, narrow, crooked, up, down, but Jesus is guiding us, always guiding us.”

In the second workshop, Alanga continued work on short passages from the Psalms and Lamentations. She is certain that having these verses in Murrinhpatha will help people.

“It doesn’t have to be in a big book,” she shares, “It can be in a little chart, cards, or on the walls … just something for … people walking around and something for them to see to help them. To click in their mind when they read it in Murrinhpatha … We can use these cards at home. Yes, and then even take it out bush, to reflect on it. Maybe sit high up on the sand dunes and read it and pray.”

During the workshop, Alanga was deeply impacted by the discussion about the names of God. “My interesting one was the names of God, God having many names, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. All three of them that really touched my heart because it is what I believe in here,” she said, pointing to her heart, “but not from up here,” indicating her head.

Alanga thought she was the only one finding the work of Bible translation hard, but she was encouraged to learn that many other students felt the same way about ‘nailing the message’. She shared, “Hopefully … we can do something to make people understand … what we have learnt here, either verbally, talking about it, or showing what we have learnt from the book or chart or even the painting.”

Alanga shares that she came to the translation workshop because she was thirsty for God’s word. “I see our people in our community are suffering, not many people go to mass these days. But many, some of us, maybe a handful of people still carrying on, still wanting, still spreading the news, with the hope for our young people and our people to live in harmony but it’s hard, sad.”

Alanga and her team are working on short passages from several Old Testament books and is hopeful for the work to be finished. She is hoping and praying hard that people who have been taught this work can continue and finish it. Alanga sees a need for young people to carry on the work of Bible translation but realises the difficulty in getting them to a place to learn about God’s word and translation.

The translation workshops are important, because as Alanga shares, “Coming to Nungalinya I feel it’s peaceful, so peaceful, loved, being with other students, learning together, telling stories, singing and dancing, praying, normal good way. In a good way and good people, we mix and still praising to one God, Jesus.”