Lancelot Threlkeld, Biraban, and the Colonial Bible in Australia

Abstract

Ethnographers, historians, and linguists have argued for many years about the nature of the relationship between missionaries and their collaborators. Critics of missionary linguistics and education have pointed out that Bible translations were tools forged for the cultural conquest of native people and that missionary impacts on local cultures nearly always destructive and frequently overwhelming (Comaroff and Comaroff 1997; Rafael 1988; Sanneh 1989). Sociolinguistic readings of scripture translation have emphasized the cultural loss inherent in the act of translation and even seemingly benign activities such as dictionary making (Errington 2001; Peterson 1999; Tomlinson 2006). To make this point, Rafael (1988: xvii) notes the semantic links between the various Spanish words for conquest (conquista), conversion (conversión), and translation (traducción). Historians, on the other hand, have generally been more skeptical about the power of mere words to exert hegemonic pressure on colonized people and have emphasized the more tangible power of guns and commerce as agents of empire (Porter 2004). Few would deny the symbolic power of the Bible as a representation of colonial domination, as in the saying attributed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu by Cox (2008: 4): “When the white man arrived, he had the Bible and we had the land; now, we have the Bible and he has the land.”

‘That’s white fellow’s talk you know, missis’

“…15 Threlkeld's studies were joined by other missionary linguistic studies, including those carried out by German missionaries at nearby Wellington Valley, but the relationship between Threlkeld and Biraban (like that of Dawes and Patyegarang) marked these foundational language studies as distinctive: indeed, as early examples of settler-Indigenous co-production of knowledge. 16 Such examples of knowledge sharing and exchange between settler and Indigenous cultures have been identified individually and noted for their rich, interpersonal qualities. Yet the emergence of scholarship about Indigenous intermediaries requires a more comprehensive analysis that moves beyond the at times hagiographic accounts of unusually principled settlers and distinctive Indigenous celebrity figures.…”

Palawa Kaniand the Value of Language in Aboriginal Tasmania

“…Between 1829 and 1859 Lancelot Threkeld, ‘apothecary, actor, missionary, linguist, humanitarian, coal developer, postal reformer, and Congregational minister’ (Carey :449), partnered with Biraban, an Australian Aboriginal man from the Lake Macquarie‐area of New South Wales, to translate the Bible into the Awabakal language . As a missionization effort this project, peerless in the Australian context, was a failure, for ‘it produced no conversions, supported no ongoing Christian community, and did not appear in print until the language concerned had become extinct’ (Carey :449). Despite the historical prevalence of missionization in the Pacific (and elsewhere), up until the mid 20 th century, there are only a few instances of scripture being translated and printed in Indigenous Australian languages .…”

“…‘Threkeld's chief collaborator on the [Bible] project was an Aboriginal man known originally as Johnny McGill or We‐pong, and later as Biraban (c. 1800‐d. 1846)’ (Carey :450). For publication, Carey argues that Threkeld's editor, ‘who has never heard a native speaker use the language, called it “Awabakal” after the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie (HRLM) name for Lake Macquarie (Awaba)’ (2010:455).…”

“…For publication, Carey argues that Threkeld's editor, ‘who has never heard a native speaker use the language, called it “Awabakal” after the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie (HRLM) name for Lake Macquarie (Awaba)’ (2010:455). The contemporary groups in the region now identify as Ku‐ring‐gai, Wonnarua, and Awabakal (Carey :456).…”

“…‘In 1963, the Bible Society catalogued its holdings of scripture translations in the languages of Australia, New Zealand, and the main island groups of the North and South Pacific… Of the 712 printed scripture translations no more than four were listed from Australia, the earliest being Threkeld's 1857 revised translation of the Gospel of St. Luke’ (Carey :454). In the 1830s Thomas Wilkinson translated sections of Genesis into Tasmanian language (Plomley :40‐43).…”