On Friday 12 March a special presentation was held at the Golden Mile Baptist Church hall in Boulder.

The Bible Society in Australia, in cooperation with the Karlkurla Language & Culture Aboriginal Corporation, translated the book God’s Story for the Outback into two of the Goldfields Region’s Aboriginal dialects, Wangkatja and Tjuunytjuunytjarra. This is the first book which the Bible Society has published in these two dialects, and they will be used in schools to aid Aboriginal language learning. These books have been produced by the Bible Society as part of the Australia-wide literacy initiative in promoting literacy among the Indigenous people of Australia.

Three officers of the Bible Society were present for the occasion – Ken Doran, (Executive Officer of WA branch), Nathan Fawkes (Bible Engagement Coordinator for WA), and Paul Eckert (Indigenous Scripture Support for Australia) who coordinated the project and assisted the local people in the translation process. An excerpt from the Wangkatja dialect book was read by Marjorie Bonnie who was responsible for its translation. An excerpt was also read from the Tjuunytjuunytjarra translation by Brian Hadfield, who with Dawn Hadfield, Lorraine Davies, Donna Brown, M. Brown (deceased) and Cynthia Thompson, were responsible for its translation.

Presentations of the publication were made to Debra Hodges (Chief Librarian of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder), Wendy Ranger and Jacqui Spurling (Aboriginal Language co-ordinators in the Goldfields District Education Department and responsible for the teaching of the Aboriginal language), and to two Aboriginal students.