The first complete translation of the Bible in an Aboriginal language will be released this Saturday. 

After almost 30 years of translation work, the Kriol Baibul will be launched at the 40th Katherine Christian Convention in the Northern Territory this Saturday night.

CMS missionaries Lance and Gwen Tremlett have worked alongside Margaret Mickan from Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in North Australia, overseeing a team of translators preparing the new Kriol Baibul for publication.

"We started as literacy workers in 1987 and through various circumstances became facilitators of the translation process in 1993," Lance says.

The significance of the completed translation is immense as the Kriol Language is spoken by an estimated 30,000 people across the Northern Territory, Western Australia and North West Queensland.

This significance is also evident to the Aboriginal Christian community.

"It is wonderful that we have our own Kriol Bible, and when we read God's word, it helps us to understand more and teaches us to live the way he wants us to," says translator, Jocelyn McCartney.

Eleven Kriol-speaking Aboriginals have been doing the bulk of translation work for more than a decade and completed the work in 2004. The past three years has consisted of checking, reviewing and preparing the manuscript for publication.

While a third of the edition of the Kriol Baibul was completed in 1991, that edition only contained the complete New Testament and 14 books of the Old Testament.

Lance says this achievement is a milestone as it allows yet another language group to have the complete word of God in their mother tongue.

"People understand things better in their heart language far more then in a second language," Lance says.

"In their own language the Word speaks much more powerfully to them."

Lance says churches in communities like Ngukurr, Minyerri and Barunga, who have been instrumental in assisting the translation process, almost exclusively use the Kriol Baibul.

"These churches will use no other Bible and have been using the present edition until now," Lance says.

"Nungalinya College in Darwin is also predominantly using this Bible, as are more and more Kriol speakers."

Sydney supports translation

CMS-NSW Mission Education Secretary, the Rev Mark Fairhurst says the next step is to continue to support the translation of the Bible into other Aboriginal languages.

"Christians have been here for over 200 years, so its exciting to see the production of first complete Aboriginal language Bible," he says.

"This should be the impetus to see other complete translations of Aboriginal language Bibles taking place."

Mark says Sydney Anglicans must be open to the possibility of serving in Aboriginal communities throughout Australia.

"As Sydney Anglicans, we love people hearing the Word of God and people hearing and studying it in their own language," he says.

"We also need people willing to work alongside the churches in those communities and training up new leaders."