A Long Time Coming – Recording Trip to Gove, NT

In the same location three years ealier, Noel Bachelor (GRN recordist) and I spent 2 weeks recording scripture in a couple of the local Aboriginal languages. It was during this time that some of the local missionaries expressed interest in being trained in audio recording. This seemed like a sensible idea given the challenges we had been facing trying to get recording done in such a limited amount of time, and Noel had already delivered a similar training program to some oral Bible traslators working in Southern Africa only a year ealier. Plans began to be made and dates proposed for the training course, and as word got out, excitement grew and people from several different organisations expressed interest in attending the training. However, 2020 happened… and then 2021. With 2022 looking more promising, dates were once again set and a room at Nuŋalinya College in Darwin was booked for July. But due to many people being unavailable at that time, plans fell through once again. So what was intended to be a recording trip to Gove August 2022, slowly started to morph into a training exercise. Although only small scale, the four attendees would form the nucleus of a new wave of recordists creating Gospel content in Aboriginal languages.  

Saturday 27th August was to be our last full day in the community and we had been expecting a busy day of recording. Sadly, one of the older ladies who had recorded with us in 2019 had passed away a couple of months earlier and the funeral ceremony (which can last weeks) had begun, rendering many people unavailable. Some did come, however, including Marrpalawuy, one of the church leaders. Her clan language, Dhay’yi, has no translated scripture or audio materials. She would normally read from the Gumatj Bible and preach in Gumatj or English. When she was a girl her father was a pastor. She fondly remembers seeing videos of her father preaching in Dhay’yi: “That’s what I’m trying to do” she said. “When I was reading this morning, I was praying first of all, ‘Garray (Jesus), you know every language, and even when I am speaking today, [the] first time for me to speak Dhay’yi, my own language, but above all this is nhuŋu (yours), thank you for the language you have given me.’” Marrpalawuy laughed as she recounted how she had made a small practice recording of herself that morning. On hearing it back she said to herself “Yuwalk eh (honsest/truely)! We are right in whatever language we have, we can speak”. Marrpalawuy recorded a real time oral translation of Ephesians 4:1-6 from the Gumatj Bible into Dhay’yi. Then, still speaking in Dhay’yi, she read out an exhaltation which she had written down in English.