Christ, cultures and computers

By Sue Careless, freelance photojournalist for the Canadian Bible Society

TORONTO, Canada — Two native American translation teams have spent a week in training with the Canadian Bible Society (CBS) to produce Easter story Selections for the Lakota and Choctaw language groups.

The teams travelled to Stratford, Ontario, to take advantage of a special software for translators, called Paratext. CBS, who helped develop the software, provided hands-on training in preparing quality electronic texts.

The CBS, which is the worldwide distributor for Paratext, also offered a course in desktop publishing software to enable each translation team to produce publications locally.

Great plains

The Lakota, who are part of the Sioux tribe, hail from the Great Plains. There are 6,000 Lakota speakers, inhabiting parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. There are 9,000 Choctaw speakers, living in regions of Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Dr Donald Johns, Director for Scripture Translations at the American Bible Society (ABS), requested the training for the Lakota and Choctaw teams.

“Language and culture are intertwined. If we are to reach First Nations people, then language is an inherent part of that. It may be that in some cultural groups only 10 per cent of people speak the traditional language but that is the core around which the culture is built. To reach the whole group we need to reach this core.”

“Language and culture are intertwined,” he said. “If we are to reach First Nations people, then language is an inherent part of that. It may be that in some cultural groups only 10 per cent of people speak the traditional language but that is the core around which the culture is built. To reach the whole group we need to reach this core.”

Small numbers

Dr Johns was not concerned that the Lakota and Choctaw were relatively small language groups.

“I’ve seen people devote entire pastoral careers to the spiritual care and feeding of 100 people,” he said. “Small numbers doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort.”

UBS Translation Consultant Dr Philip Towner explained that the Lakota and Choctaw people were requesting a translation not only to communicate the faith more effectively in their own cultural context but also to help resurrect their cultural consciousness. “We need to honour that,” he said.

Jack Rushing, the Lakota Translation Project facilitator, graduated in biomedical research, but felt God calling him to work in something of “more eternal value.” He had a love for language, and enjoys working cross-culturally.

“You can’t separate language and culture,” he said. “This work is not just an academic exercise in linguistics, but involves appreciating another culture and understanding how it thinks.”

Dr Jerry Yellowhawk, a highly-respected Lakota Christian leader, believes that translating the Scriptures into native languages is vital to the establishment of indigenous churches.

“If the church is ever to become indigenous, that is ‘of the people’, it must be by the people,” he said.

Pam Smith, who spoke only Choctaw at home on the Pearl River Reservation, spent 18 years in education, and is now a full-time translator on a contemporary version of the Choctaw New Testament.

“God’s words in our language speak in our hearts, while English seems more in our heads. I’m hearing more of the message in my language. The translation work has deepened my faith; I understand what God’s words mean.” (WR 360/13 - 06.01) [PHOTOS]