Our Mission

Welcome to the Scriptures for Australian Indigenous Languages (SAIL) collaboration. We are a group of Australian Bible agencies working together to support Bible translation, Scripture engagement, and associated training across Australia. We work with Indigenous communities in planning various workshops, and recruiting and supporting translation facilitators, trainees and advisors in their various locations. The collaboration emphasizes cross-cultural competency, relationship building, and logistical support for all of our respective staff.

Currently, our group is exploring funding opportunities, evaluating community needs and requests, and training future Indigenous translators and Scripture engagement workers. We are also developing systems and resources for remote distribution to ensure needs are met and sustained engagement with Indigenous communities is maintained.

We are endeavouring to make available all the indigenous Scriptures that we have collectively produced. Hence under each language in the languages tab you will find links to what we so far made available. Some of this was previously only available in print or audio, but is now available digitally in alternate formats. Our goal is to make as many Christian resources in Australian Indigenous languages available as possible and more is being added every year.

Prior to the arrival of European settlement, it is estimated that around 400 Indigenous languages were spoken in Australia. Unfortunately, since that time, Australia has suffered the highest rate of language extinction in the world, and currently only about 10% of these languages are still used in daily life. By providing the material on this site, we hope to encourage interest and value in keeping Indigenous languages alive from Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike.

Our language is like a pearl inside a shell.
The shell is like the people that carry the language.
If our language is taken away, then that would be like a pearl that is gone.
We would be like an empty oyster shell.
– Yurranydjil Dhurrkay, Galiwin’ku, North East Arnhem Land

Since over half of Indigenous Australians identify as Christian, this site focuses on providing access to historical and current published translations of the Holy Bible or portions thereof. When no scripture has been published in a language, but drafts exist, some of these have been posted with a caveat as we wish as much material as possible to be made accessible and available. Scriptures are posted here with permission of the copyright holders. Some materials may also be published here for the first time. You are free to read, download, and share the material posted on this site according to the terms given in each Bible’s copyright information page.

Bible Statistics: There are at least 53 Indigenous Languages with some part of the Bible today.

  • Only 1 has a complete Bible (Kriol)
  • 7 languages have partial Bibles published (‘MiniBibles’) with some New Testament and some Old Testament sections
  • 15 have a complete New Testament, sometimes with sections of the Old Testament (known as ‘Shorter Bibles’)
  • 22 have at least one complete Old or New Testament book, usually a Gospel
  • 9 have just portions of Scripture
  • Of these, 16 languages have Scripture recorded in audio format

Acknowledgement to country

We acknowledge the First Nations People as the Traditional Custodians of this land we now called Australia on which we live, work and call home. We pay respect to all the First Nations people, we recognise and respect the rich cultural heritage, beliefs and spiritual relationship with Country, passed down through generations. We acknowledge the creator of this beautiful land, God and acknowledge the Elders both past and present who have cared for this creation with respect and reverence.

We pray that God (our Creator) would lead us down the path of Reconciliation for all Australian people as we live together in unity and harmony.