Supporting local translators
Wycliffe Today Autumn 2026
by Lachlan Webb
When I tell people that I’m working on the Tiwi translation of the Bible, a common question people ask is, ‘When will you learn Tiwi? How can you help translate if you don’t know the language itself?’ Tiwi is considered a very difficult language. You can say a great deal in a single word, albeit a word that may have more letters than the average alphabet. Add to that many thousands of years of cultural practices and it is unfortunately easy to misunderstand something, even if you have a dictionary in hand!
So then, who does the translation? People who have used Tiwi all their lives – those from the Tiwi Islands, just 80 kilometres north of Darwin. There is a great need for Tiwi translators. The Tiwi people have a strong church, and a strong language. They should be the ones with the opportunity to bring the Bible into their language. It is here that my role as a translation advisor, and a translation teacher, fits in.
Wycliffe Australia helps empower local translators through its partner organisations, including the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL) and Nungalinya College. AuSIL serves as the primary translation arm of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in Australia. Nungalinya College is an Indigenous training college for equipping Indigenous Christians. Nungalinya provides training in a number of TAFE-level certificates, up to a Cert. IV in Ministry and Theology.
I’m currently teaching the Cert. II in Indigenous Translating to a cohort of Tiwi translators. There are currently around 16 Tiwi students who started the three-year course in 2025. I feel for the students as we slog through grammar and morphology but seeing them come to life when we dig into translation work is inspiring. The classroom shifts from the quiet murmur of grinding intellectual work to a vibrant, noisy and animated discussion. During a class last year, I discovered that the cohort had gathered over the weekend to complete a translation of a song we’d been learning in class. That’s enthusiasm!
When the students have finished their course, and even before that, some will go on to be Bible translators. At the moment, they have started a translation club at church, such is their desire for a Tiwi Bible. To have the opportunity to work with them day to day to achieve their goals is amazing, and Wycliffe Australia is supporting them in every step of the process.
Scripture distribution in the Outback
Wycliffe Today Autumn 2026
How did a school in France help a music teacher move from life in the classroom to sharing Scripture resources in the Aussie Outback? God often has unusual ways of calling people to serve him. That has been Rob Clements’ experience.
Rob was working as a high school music teacher in Canberra when he was struck by something he saw from a school in Paris with which he had musical connections. The school posted a project about the First World War. Rob was amazed to read that over 1000 Indigenous Australians fought alongside European soldiers. Despite Indigenous Australians not being encouraged to volunteer for military service, many still enlisted. During the war, they received a wage and equal conditions to the other soldiers. Yet, when they returned home, they encountered the same prejudice and discrimination as before. This led Rob down a path of researching more about Indigenous history, and the inequality, isolation and challenges still faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Rob felt convicted to do something to help.
After almost 30 years of being a teacher, Rob spoke with his wife, Lisa, about doing something meaningful with their retirement. Rob began teaching English as a second language and studied multilingual education. Then an opportunity opened up in Central Australia. The Clementses decided to try volunteering with Wycliffe Australia and the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL) to help bring God’s Word to remote Indigenous communities. Rob and Lisa committed to equipping and encouraging local Indigenous leaders with vernacular resources including Scripture, songbooks and Bible-based audio materials in their own languages.
For six months of the year, Rob and Lisa base themselves in Alice Springs and drive out to remote communities, covering an area roughly four times the size of France. They manage five distribution runs, each around 1000 kilometres of driving, visiting communities where at least 12 different languages are spoken.
Rob doesn’t speak any of the languages but he is learning to read all of them! He says:
I don’t speak the languages, but doors are opening and trust is being built, all based on God’s Word. Even if you can’t understand what you’re saying, being able to read Scripture aloud in language has such a tremendous impact on language communities.
Why should others get involved in remote Scripture distribution? Rob explains:
I encourage people to push through the barrier of the ‘tyranny of distance’ because it’s so rewarding. Yes, the language barrier can be tough – many in remote communities don’t have any English. But they love getting worship music and hearing Scripture in language. These are intensely spiritual people with a deep hunger for God’s Word. And aside from the language resources themselves, people in remote bush communities have a yearning for fellowship, encouragement, and prayer. I’ve seen enough to convince me that this work is absolutely worth it.
For more information about Scripture material distribution, or to help cover travel expenses, visit https://wycliffe.org.au/projects/scripture-material-distribution-in-remote-central-australia/.
PRAY that Rob and Lisa:
- prioritise which remote groups to visit
find resolutions for any cross-cultural issues that inevitably arise
find more volunteers to help with the work: ideally, four to five retirees who can drive a 4WD for around 17 days at a time.
Training future gospel workers
Alan Rogers is a storyteller. As a member of the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL), he connects with a range of different language groups in the Northern Territory and throughout the Top End. Alan has a passion for seeing Indigenous people connect with Jesus’ story through God’s Word. As many Indigenous people are from cultures that pass on stories orally, Alan and his wife Lucy have been helping them to record Scripture and worship songs in their own languages. Over 650 albums have been created so far. Some of the albums Alan has recorded have some incredible stories behind them.
Something that Alan and his team are passionate about is encouraging the use of Indigenous language in churches to help raise a new generation of gospel workers. There are 21 different translation programs in progress throughout Australia with a new inititiative, SAIL (Scripture for Australian Indigenous Languages), coordinating efforts from a number of interested organisations. Alan says that the best way to move forward with these projects is to train Indigenous translators in biblical studies:
We need to have more Aboriginal people trained in how to look for parallels in Bible passages to help make explicit that which is implied—otherwise, the people are just listening to a story. Nungalinya College currently has several cohorts of Indigenous students studying the Diploma in Translation. I think this course will be instrumental in training Bible translators who can connect with Scripture on a level that non-Indigenous people would not be able to.
Greg Anderson, Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory, agrees that ‘the best clergy we have here are people who used to be Bible translators’. The full revised Kriol Bible (2019) involved Indigenous people with a heart for keeping their language, culture and faith alive for future generations. Alan shares, ‘If we can inspire a new generation of translators, we can achieve similar results in other languages.’
In 2023 and 2024, many Indigenous translators were brought together from all over Australia to hone their skills in Bible translation workshops. Some are experienced, and some have less experience, but all cooperate in the task of translation. Our team at AuSIL joined with the Bible Society, Coordinate, and senior translators to work with our Indigenous brethren on selected Bible passages. They produced posters, booklets and videos of the material they translated. “The harmony of such people—distantly situated but with common goals—is a delight to see.”
Click here to help fund training for more Aboriginal translators
Partnering in Bible translation for Indigenous Australian languages
By Max Sahl | Wycliffe Today Spring 2021
Wycliffe Australia is very proud of its members working in translation and Scripture engagement projects right here in Australia. In our own backyard, we have dozens of Australian Indigenous languages, many without adequate scriptures and many facing extinction. The opportunities for preserving Aboriginal languages and culture are huge and we are praying to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into these ripe fields.
In this edition we rejoice with our partner AuSIL (Australian Society for Indigenous Languages) as they celebrate 60 years of working with Indigenous communities to record languages and give God’s Word to people in a way that speaks to their soul.
I was privileged to meet some of these committed people on a recent trip to Darwin and Alice Springs: Melody Kube and Kathy Dadd as they ran a translation workshop in Darwin, Lucy and Alan Rogers engaging Indigenous Christians through ethnoarts, David Blackman finishing the translation work in the Alyawarr language, and Ming Fang and David Strickland getting ready to dedicate the Anmatyerr mini Bible.
I am sure you will appreciate them all the more as you read their stories, always remembering that the Lord of the universe uses ordinary people just like you and me to do extraordinary things.
Image care of AuSIL
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