The Bible in Aboriginal Kriol (ROPWBT)

Overview

The Kriol Bible, known as the "Holi Baibul," is the first complete Bible published in any Australian Aboriginal language [1]. Kriol is an English-lexifier creole language that developed through contact between Indigenous peoples and European settlers in northern Australia, and it is spoken by tens of thousands of Aboriginal people from the Kimberley through the Top End of the Northern Territory into north-west Queensland [2]. Translation work on the Kriol Bible began in 1978 and continued for 27 years; the New Testament appeared in 1991, and the completed Old and New Testaments were dedicated at the Katherine Christian Convention in May 2007 [1]. The translation was a collaborative effort led by the Rev. Canon Gumbuli Wurrumara and a team of native Kriol speakers, working alongside specialists from the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL) [1]. The project was a joint initiative of the Bible Society in Australia, Lutheran Bible Translators, the Church Missionary Society, the Anglican Church, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and AuSIL [1]. John W. Harris, a linguist and Bible scholar who grew up on an Aboriginal mission on Groote Eylandt, later served as director of the Bible Society's translation and text division overseeing work in Indigenous Australian languages, and received a Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2010 for his contributions [3]. A revised edition of the Kriol Bible was published and launched at Katherine, Northern Territory, in May 2019 at the Katherine Christian Convention [1].

Language and People

Kriol (ISO 639-3: rop) is spoken by approximately 7,160 people. [Glottolog: krio1252]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

References