Mohawk-language Bible published after decades of work by Kanesatake man | 24CA News
Harvey Satewas Gabriel nonetheless remembers the primary time he heard a preacher learn Bible passages within the Mohawk language again within the Nineteen Fifties. He watched the United Church minister open the e book and translate the Scripture into Mohawk straight off the web page as he learn, the phrases sounding like “honey” to the then-17-year-old from Kanesatake, Que.
Gabriel went house and requested his mom why there was no Mohawk Bible. She mentioned, “That’s a big project, who’s going to translate that?” he remembers.
That dialog would spark a decades-long ardour that culminates this fall with the publication of an entire Mohawk-language Bible — most of it translated by Gabriel himself.
The 83-year-old estimates it took him about 17 years, on and off, to finish the interpretation, together with 58 books he translated single-handedly.
Gabriel mentioned that early dialog together with his mom caught with him. However, it wasn’t till round 1980 that he first began translating Bible passages, when he was requested to offer readings in Mohawk at his church, Kanesatake United.
The course of turned extra formal within the Nineties, when he was invited to hitch a gaggle of elders who gathered to translate Second Corinthians. While that group disbanded after just a few years, Gabriel stored happening his personal, working evenings and weekends previous to his retirement from a Montreal firm in 2005.
“I kept going because when you start something for the Creator, you can’t stop,” he mentioned in a latest interview within the backyard of his Kanesatake house. “It’s so interesting. Every verse is different.
“I was wondering what the next verse says.”
The newly printed Bible has a purple cowl — the color of the Iroquois Confederacy flag — and an illustration depicting the turtle, wolf and bear clans. The title reads “Ohiatonhseratokénti” — a phrase Gabriel says means “holy pages.”
When requested what motivated him, Gabriel’s reply is straightforward: “language.”
He was as soon as informed, and believes, that translating the phrase of God into his language means “it can never be lost.” Already, he mentioned, younger people who find themselves studying Mohawk have informed him they’re keen to make use of the Bible as a useful resource.
Gabriel, who has additionally written a Mohawk dictionary, is just not the primary member of his household to take language preservation to coronary heart: his great-grandfather, Sosé Onasakenrat, translated the Four Gospels within the mid-1800s.
His mom, Gladys Jacobs, was a residential college survivor who managed to keep away from dropping her language by talking it within the schoolyard together with her sister and associates, he mentioned. After that, she would solely permit Mohawk to be spoken in her house.
Gabriel mentioned that whereas he had no formal coaching, translating the Bible “wasn’t too difficult” as a result of he’s a fluent Mohawk speaker, and had his great-grandfather’s translations as a mannequin.
With funding from the Canadian Bible Society, he labored with a number of Biblical language professors to confirm the accuracy of his work, translating his personal phrases again into English for them to match to the works in Hebrew.
According to Gabriel, one of many professors was astounded by the accuracy of the interpretation, telling him it was “side by side with the Hebrew.”
“That tells me my language is as old as Hebrew,” Gabriel mentioned.
Gabriel mentioned that finally, funding for the mission dried up, and his translation sat on cabinets for just a few years till his spouse of 56 years, Susan, determined to make a renewed push to get it printed.
Susan Gabriel linked with the United Church of Canada Foundation, who stepped in with funding to assist with the ultimate translation, proofreading, format and printing.
Royal Orr, a board member for the muse, mentioned he believes the Mohawk Bible is one among solely a handful of full Indigenous-language Bible translations. The indisputable fact that Gabriel translated about 80 per cent of it himself — with help from his spouse and others — is an indication of his “diligence, dedication and faith,” in addition to his outstanding artistry, he mentioned.
“When you’re translating the Bible, there’s everything from legal texts to narrative to poetry to letters,” Orr mentioned in a telephone interview. “It’s all of these forms of writing.”
A sequence of occasions can be held this fall to have a good time the publication, together with a dedication on the Kanesatake United Church on Sept. 9 adopted by celebrations in Montreal and Caledonia, Ont.
Gabriel mentioned he’ll donate the proceeds of the gross sales of the Bible to Indigenous language organizations.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
