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Newsletter November 2023

An epic journey! The Maningrida Bible Translation Centre

Maningrida now has a translation centre and it has been an epic journey! The Kunibídji whose name for this place is Manayingkarírra are the traditional owners. They gave enthusiastic permission for the building of a new Bible Translation Centre down near the beach next to the Church House. There are eleven languages spoken in Maningrida and it is time to have a space where language work can happen. The West Arnhem Area Council of Northern Regional Council of Congress, the UCA church elders of Western Arnhemland, were also enthusiastic supporters of the project.

Mobile Mission Maintenance (MMM) were brought on board to help with designing and building. Their experience in creating prefabricated buildings for the Pacific Region that are steel framed and cyclone coded was invaluable. MMM’s volunteer workforce of retired tradies, engineers and architects constructed the frame in Melbourne, packed it into a container and shipped it to Darwin. Meanwhile the challenges of a late wet season led to a nail biting wait for the slab to happen in Maningrida, but thanks to local Aboriginal contractors the slab was poured and cured just in time for the arrival of the building team.

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Newsletter May 2024

14 Jun, 2024
North East Arnhem news 'seeing the big picture'. Partnering to support Indigenous Scripture across Australia, The Australian Bible Translation Collaboration. Nungalinya in Maningrida. Bobo Ngalwangarri - Obituary for H. Hinch. Praise and prayer. From Sydney to Elcho Island. Pitjantjatjarra Children's Art Bible: 'Godaku Tjukurpa', Nami's legacy of love for children. Yanyi and Leviticus.
A woman is cutting a red ribbon to open a door.

Newsletter November 2023

19 Apr, 2024
Maningrida now has a translation centre and it has been an epic journey! The Kunibídji whose name for this place is Manayingkarírra are the traditional owners. They gave enthusiastic permission for the building of a new Bible Translation Centre down near the beach next to the Church House. There are eleven languages spoken in Maningrida and it is time to have a space where language work can happen. The West Arnhem Area Council of Northern Regional Council of Congress, the UCA church elders of Western Arnhemland, were also enthusiastic supporters of the project.
A group of people are sitting at tables in a room watching a presentation.

Newsletter December 2022

19 Apr, 2024
Praise God for a very worthwhile workshop last month. Our thanks go to the Finke River Mission for the use of their hall once again. It is a very suitable venue for this type of activity, even though we needed to pack up on two evenings to make way for others. There was the usual challenge of unpredictable participation, but a committed group of four Luritja speakers attended every day. Stanley, Douglas, Monica, and Sonya were joined by Joseph for three of the five days. Yuminiya, a Pitjantjatjara speaker, attended on part of two days. Kerry, an Alyawarr speaker, attended on one day.
Three women are sitting in chairs outside and one of them is wearing a butterfly blanket.

Newsletter August 2022

19 Apr, 2024
Coordinate was invited by Bible Society Australia and SIL Pacific region to attend an Oceania Gathering in Sydney with the theme ‘What do we need to get the job done?’ They asked us to present on this theme from our local context, so Margaret Miller and I put together a Power Point presentation with stories that Yurrandjil had given us permission to tell.
A group of women standing in front of a sign that says hope peace

Newsletter April 2022

19 Apr, 2024
This is a story of incredible love, remarkable co-operation and amazing grace. On Friday 8th April (2022) two boxes of recently printed New Testaments were carried into the Yirrkala church with much ceremony. Dozens of Yolŋu men, representing Gupapuyŋu, Madarrpa, Maŋgalili and Gumatj, walked in with the boxes of bibles and sang with great reverence, as rhythm sticks split the air with their sharp ‘crack-crackcrack’ defining the rhythm and tempo of local traditional song. We had gathered with hundreds of Yolŋu at Yirrkala Church to dedicate the reprint of the Gumatj New Testament.
A group of people are sitting on a rug in the grass.

Newsletter December 2021

19 Apr, 2024
Maningrida is one of the most multilingual places in the world – ten plus completely distinct languages spoken every day amongst a population of 3000 people! Most of those languages didn’t have any published Scripture until now. A few months ago, five different languages spoken in Maningrida translated seven verses of the Christmas story (we’ve written about this workshop in a previous newsletter).
A group of women are standing in front of a microphone.

Newsletter August 2021

19 Apr, 2024
In the last Coordinate newsletter, Melody from AuSIL (Australian Society for Indigenous Languages) told you about a translators workshop that she was organising in Darwin, for people to work on translating the Christmas story into their languages. I was able to go to this with 6 people from 2 languages—Kuninjku and Njeppena—in Maningrida in West Arnhem land, where I live.
Two women are sitting in chairs talking to each other in a room.

Newsletter April 2021

19 Apr, 2024
“I was reading through chapter 1 of John to my friend, from my translation draft that you printed for checking. And then I got her to read the next chapter to me. As she was reading, she said to me, 'It is giving me goose bumps!' We were both so happy sitting together and reading God's word in our language.”
A group of people are gathered in a field at night

Newsletter November 2020

19 Apr, 2024
In the 1970's and 80's the Gumatj Bible project was bathed in prayer by it’s church members at Yirrkala Uniting. In over a decade and a half, a New Testament and portions of the Old were produced; nothing short of miraculous in quantity and quality. It was a special time in the life of the church when the Revival moved throughout NE Arnhem Land and beyond.
Three women are sitting on the ground looking at papers

Newsletter May 2020

19 Apr, 2024
There has been a lot of excitement recently with the arrival of the new Pitjantjatjara Shorter Bibles. The previous edition was a best-seller, and since running out of stock in 2016 there has been growing anticipation for the new Bibles.
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