What's the rarest thing you own?
This Bible, owned by my family.It’s in Ngaanyatjarra, the Aboriginal language from the part of Australia that the cross is coming out of on the cover. It says Mama Kuurrku Wangka, which means Father God’s Word.The grammar of the language is very different to English. I’ll give a couple of examples I found in the introduction.Ngarnmanypalpi Mama Kuurrtu manta yilkaritarrartu palyarnu.This means: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Notice how here Mama Kuurrku is ‘Mama Kuurrtu’. This is because a suffix is attached onto the end of a name, depending on how the name is used in the sentence.Ngaanya tjukurrpa walykumunu Tjiitja-Kurayitjanya Mama Kuurrku Katjatjarra.This means: This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.This Bible is an idiomatic translation, which means that the underlying meanings of Hebrew and Greek words and idioms have been translated into understandable and more relevant Ngaanyatjarra idioms. The meaning is kept, but not the exact words, e.g. ‘Gentile’ becomes Tjiyu wiya, or ‘not Jew’.Now, I only lived in that region of Australia for four years, from when I was six years old to when I was nine. So I never really learned how to read this language. But I can look through it and notice words that I heard spoken at some point.And I have picked out quite a few names, so here they are (suffixes removed):Mama Kuurrnga — Father GodTjiitja — JesusYatama — AdamYiipa —EveKayin — CainYayipul — AbelNawa — NoahTjiima — ShemYaama — HamTjayipi — JaphethYayipurama — AbrahamYayitjiki — IsaacRipaka — RebekahTjayikapa — JacobMawutja — MosesTjuul — SaulTayipirr — DavidPiita — PeterMiri — MaryMaatja — MarthaMatjuyu — MatthewMaaka — MarkLuuka — LukeTjayimi — JamesTjuun — JohnPuul — PaulTapitja — TabithaI think it’s pretty cool, and certainly a rare thing.