The Other Cheek interviewed Translation Consultant Sam Freney about how the Bible Society is increasingly producing audio Bibles into their work alongside Aboriginal Communities.
Traditionally the Bible Society focussed on publishing printed Bibles for Aboriginal communities, but recordings are now part of what you do. How and why make the change?
Audio is a really good way of getting Scripture out to a lot of people. Everyone has phones, and the little Bible audio players that are solar charged (e.g. Megavoice players) are also really great. People who are unable to read a printed Bible (or an online Bible) for whatever reason are able to listen to it, so there’s quite a community who can then access Scripture. We can also take advantage of modern technology: good microphones, cheap big hard drives for audio recording, etc. Both audio and written approaches still exist, and the most appropriate one for the goals of the community is what we go with. There’s also two distinct types of ‘recordings’ – one is an audio recording of already written Scripture, much like you might listen to either a plain reading or a dramatised version of the NIV, for example. There are audio recording workshops happening right now, recording the Kriol Bible and Plain English Versions. The other approach is an oral translation, in contrast to a written translation. This is where the entire translation process is done orally: listening to the source text, talking through the meaning, internalising the structure and the connections of the passage, then recording drafts orally, checking them in an audio format, and finally publishing an audio translation. Sometimes that will get written down after the fact, but that’s (often) an optional extra. This approach is particularly designed for groups for whom reading and writing a translation is difficult or impossible. The goal is a translation that accurately conveys the original text, in the vernacular of the target language.
Does this speed up the work?
Yes and no. For languages where there is no writing system, then definitely it speeds up the overall project work – there’s not a lengthy step at the outset of deciding on orthography, teaching literacy, and so on. This is the case for a substantial number of languages around the world; it’s not so much the case that Australian languages don’t have a writing system, but for many there’s not a widely agreed upon system, or there are other issues which make this harder. Also for a team of willing translators who would first need training in literacy before they could start a written translation project, the overall time is shorter. Setting that aside though, the translation process is much the same in written or oral formats. There are stages of comprehension, interpretation, drafting, redrafting, checking, assessing, and publishing, and the medium doesn’t make a huge difference in speed once you take all these into account.
Are there challenges to doing recordings?
Getting a good audio environment for making a good recording in a remote community can sometimes be a challenge. Obviously we can’t take a recording studio wherever we go, but there are ways of setting things up to make it more amenable to good quality audio. It’s still tricky, though. Having every part of the process done orally can be a challenge for some people. People like me, accustomed to written text and doing rather poorly when relying on memory, find it very difficult to memorise a long passage and repeat it or redraft it without adding anything or removing anything (which is crucial for a translation rather than a re-telling). Translators can find this a challenge to get accustomed to.
What’s the big picture of Bible translation for Indigenous peoples in Australia?
We want to work with communities to see Scripture available in languages they prefer. Which may not mean a full Bible in every single language (eventually it may!), but portions in different formats so that people can access Scripture in languages that they not only know, but prefer.
What’s the current focus?
We’re working hard with a variety of other agencies involved in translation to support and progress the translation work across the country, both existing projects and new ones. Some of those translation projects are mature, involve a large number of translators, and are covering a lot of Biblical material quite quickly (e.g., Pitjantjatjara). Others are working with people aiming to reawaken their language that has been sleeping for a number of years, and restore it to their community. Others are working on doing an oral translation of a parable here and there, to provide another incremental piece of Scripture to a small community of speakers. All of these types of translations are necessary to see Scripture available across the country to all people, in languages they prefer.
Some languages are in danger. Is there a race against time?
Yes, that is true. However, the aim of translation work in this country is to get Scripture to people in languages they *prefer*. That might or might not be languages that are “in danger”. Translators in a community may well decide the best way to make Scripture intelligible to the next generation is in a vernacular that is quite different to the language of an older generation, because of exposure to English, Kriol, or other languages. For languages with few speakers, even if they agreed that documenting the language is the best way to preserve it (by no means a given!), Bible translation is not necessarily the best way to do that. Even if the whole Bible were translated, that would not give the next generation a full vocabulary, or a grammar necessary for fluent speakers. Language documentation and Scripture translation are often complementary activities, but they’re not the same thing and come about because of different goals.
A description of the Bible Society’s Indigenous translation projects is here. They note “Since 1864, Bible Society Australia has published parts of the Bible into at least 53 Indigenous languages, however, only the Kriol Language has a complete Bible translation. It’s a heartbreaking reality, but you can take part in revitalising the heart languages of Indigenous Australians by empowering Indigenous Bible projects — bringing connection with God’s word while preserving cultures.”
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