{"id":40810,"date":"2023-11-07T09:35:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T20:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/?p=40810"},"modified":"2023-11-07T09:35:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T20:35:54","slug":"mohawk-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/mohawk-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mohawk Bible \u2013 one man\u2019s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On September 9th, 2023, members of the Mohawk community, who reside in Canada and the U.S., celebrated an important milestone when they received the full Bible in their heart language, at the Kanesatake United Church, in Caledonia, Ontario. For principal translator, Harvey Satewas Gabriel, who has worked on the translation for decades, the new Bible represents a lifelong journey of passion for the revitalisation of the Mohawk language, family, and faith. \u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t\thttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3FEpnF-CMWc\n

In 1715, the first portions of the Bible were published in Mohawk. In 1880, Harvey\u2019s great-grandfather, Sos\u00e9 Onasakenrat, also known as Rev. Joseph Swan, completed the translation of the Gospels into Mohawk. There matters remained until the 1950s, when 17-year-old Harvey went to church with his mother and heard the Scriptures read in English.\u00a0
\u00a0
Harvey went home and asked his mother, Gladys Jacobs, why there was no Bible in Mohawk. \u00a0
That conversation sparked a decades-long passion that culminated in the publication of the Mohawk Bible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Harvey and his mother, Gladys, have fought to retain the Mohawk language. For Gladys, it began as a child when she was placed into a residential school where she was forbidden to speak Mohawk. These were boarding schools which were designed to isolate indigenous children from their language and culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Gladys and her sister and other children refused to give up their language, and they spoke it among themselves. \u201cIf they got caught, they would be put in a dark room for a very long time. They never got caught,\u201d says Harvey. Gladys passed on her passion for the Mohawk language to Harvey and his siblings, who are fluent speakers.\u00a0
\u00a0
In the 1980s, Harvey started translating Bible passages into Mohawk when he was asked to do readings at his church. In the 1990s, he was invited to join a translation team. Together, they translated 2 Corinthians, Esther, Ruth, and Proverbs into Mohawk, before disbanding. Harvey continued, working evenings and weekends before his retirement.\u00a0
\u00a0
When asked what motivated him, Harvey\u2019s reply is simple: \u201clanguage.\u201d Harvey, who has also written a Mohawk dictionary, believes that translating the Word of God into his language means that it can never be lost. Already, young people who are learning Mohawk have told him that they are eager to use the Bible as a resource. \u201cI kept going because when you start something for the Creator, you can\u2019t stop,\u201d says Harvey.\u00a0
\u00a0
Now 83-years-old, it was a special moment for Harvey when he unveiled the long-awaited Mohawk Bible at Kanesatake Church. But when he was recognised for his work, he was quick to humble himself. \u201cIt is not my word. It is not about me, it is about Him,\u201d he says. The event was attended by Mohawk community members, church leaders, Six Nations officials, and Bible Society leaders. \u00a0

<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mohawk\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Harvey Satewas Gabriel, centre, with the Mohawk Bible, with Rt. Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, moderator of the United Church of Canada, left, and Rev. Dr. Rupen Das, right, president of the Canadian Bible Society, which helped Harvey with translation and linguistic support and funding. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 9th, 2023, members of the Mohawk community, who reside in Canada and the U.S., celebrated an important milestone when they received the full Bible in their heart language, at the Kanesatake United Church, in Caledonia, Ontario. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[26,29],"class_list":["post-40810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-translation","category-news","tag-bible","tag-translations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}