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Translation thrives amid challenge in Papua New Guinea
PAPUA NEW GUINEA — In his work as a United Bible Societies (UBS) Translation Consultant, Dr Stephen Pattemore has become accustomed to expecting the unexpected. The ability to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances is essential: local conditions may not be quite as anticipated, and travel plans may change as quickly as the weather. There is one country for which Dr Pattemore has responsibility where this is particularly true: Papua New Guinea. The more than 600 islands which make up this nation vary considerably in terms of infrastructure, population and resources. The practical, social and economic challenges that this brings have a direct impact on the many translation projects in which UBS and its partners are involved. Responsibility “Our approach is to encourage local people to take responsibility for translation work,” Dr Pattemore explains. “Most have never done any work of this kind before and, in many cases, have not had a great deal of formal education. So we provide a lot of support in terms of training and quality control, in person and by correspondence. “We very much want to supply local translation teams with computers, but in many communities there is no electricity and no support if things go wrong! We recently supplied the Yuna project in the Highlands region with a computer which is powered, via a truck battery, by solar panels. So now there is a little translation office there and the translators are able to use the Paratext translation program. Even in communities which are only one generation, or at most two generations, out of the Stone Age, computers are speeding up translation projects. It’s really exciting when you see that happening. Challenging “You have to realise that Papua New Guinea has very limited infrastructure. I often have to go to places where there is no regular transport of any kind, no telephones, no electricity. This makes it a hugely challenging country to work in. “The rewards are equally large, though. I remember the first
time I visited one particular community in the southern Highlands to
hold a workshop. We trekked up into the hills and then had to wait a
long time for the participants to arrive. For some of them, it was a
journey of two or three days over the hills. Ben Ayai, the co-ordinator
of the group, had already arrived but early one morning, while we were
still waiting for the others, he set off down the trail again. We asked
him, ‘Where are you going?’ He replied, ‘I’ve got
to go and sort out a dispute.’ He was dressed just like the rest
of us, in T-shirt and jeans. We didn’t see him all day. In the
evening we were all gathered round in the dusk and just deciding that
perhaps we shouldn’t wait any longer and we should get on with
the workshop. Suddenly I was aware of a warrior in full war regalia
standing at the edge of the circle. It gave me a bit of a shock until
I realised that it was Ben, whom I had last seen in jeans and T-shirt.
He had gone home, got into his full regalia and spent the day mediating
in a dispute between his clan and another clan. He had finally persuaded
his clan members not to take blood vengeance on the other clan. They
had accepted instead a compensation payment of pigs. That to me was
a wonderful example of how people transformed by the Word of God are
able to transform societies.”
Visiting Papua New Guinea again last November for another workshop, Dr Pattemore’s skills in adaptability were put to the test in other ways. Remote coastline “This workshop was held as part of the Mailu (Magi) translation project. Supported by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, this project has been running since 1999 with the aim of translating the Old Testament into the language of around 6,000 people living along over 100 kms of remote coastline in Central Province. The workshop was designed primarily to prepare the translation team for tackling the Book of Psalms, but, following a request from the Magi community for help with expanding their hymn book, we also included a song-writing element. Six hours by road “It was a journey of six hours by road and four hours by dinghy from Port Moresby to Boru, the village where more than 30 local people had assembled for the workshop. Some were existing translators or reviewers, others were villagers. “Planning this event was difficult. We knew that composition of contemporary Christian songs was thriving among the Magi people, complemented by a strong tradition of peroveta hymnody (the so-called ‘prophet song’ genre introduced by Cook Islands mission teachers). We did not know, however, how familiar the participants were with translation principles. We assumed that the majority had attended at least one previous translation workshop and were familiar with the basic principles of meaning-based translation. This turned out not to be the case! “It also soon became clear that some of the participants did not have a very strong command of English and needed to have some things explained to them separately. Thus we adopted, for the first week at least, a hybrid approach combining lectures and practical sessions. As the days went on, we tried to encourage people to adopt an oral approach to translating and composing, shifting away from the traditional idea that a written translated text must exist first before a song can be composed. Flexible
“As well as adapting the teaching to the abilities of the participants as we went along, we also had to be flexible with the timetable. The opening and closing ceremonies took almost half a day each, for example, and some translation project meetings also had to be fitted in. Lunch was provided communally and frequently the clan bringing the food also entertained the participants with peroveta singing. Sometimes community groups came and performed dances or songs. Milestone “Overall, the workshop was a very significant milestone in the Magi Old Testament project. The Coordinator announced that Psalms had been born and literally ‘nurtured’ during the fortnight! Each group performed one of their Psalm settings in the Sunday morning church service after the first week, and another at the closing ceremony. The level of interest in the community in the new compositions was evidence that they were epoch-making, and among the participants we noticed a sense of excitement building over the duration of the workshop. All of the performances of the Psalms were recorded and copies of the two audio cassettes are being distributed to all the villages from which participants came. “Only the first of the Psalms had any significant degree of exegetical checking applied to it, since we felt that it was important to allow the poetic/musical momentum to develop. As a result, none of the Psalms was in its final form by the time the workshop ended. However, the translator assigned to this work is not only an experienced translator but is also one of the most musically gifted of the participants. Thus it is expected that the ‘Boru Psalms’ will be completed to take pride of place in the growing Magi Psalter.” (WR 406/18 - 11.06) [7 photos] |
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