Australian researcher creates world-first Indigenous translation of Declaration of Human Rights

For the first time, the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has been translated into an Indigenous Australian language, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) revealed on Thursday.

Dr Sarah Holcombe from ANU said the feat took more than two years to complete, after she met with several translators and stakeholders who speak the Indigenous language of Pintupi-Luritja.

Although it is one of the thousands of Aboriginal dialects found across Australia, the translation of the UDHR into Pintupi-Luritja is a first for a native Australian language, despite the UDHR being the world's most translated piece of literature.

Holcombe said the process of translating the document was as revealing as it was challenging, saying that a lot of Indigenous Australians had not heard of universal human rights.

"Very few Anangu people (Pintupi-Luritja speakers) had heard of universal human rights," Dr Holcombe said.

"The articles about the rule of law, for example that all should be innocent until proven guilty and that the law should be treating all people equally, are apocryphal when applied to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory."

The UDHR was created in 1948 as the first major step towards equal human rights, and has since been translated into more than 460 languages.

Holcombe said she hoped her research would pave the way for more Indigenous Australians to understand and spread the awareness of basic human rights.

"Anangu have a right to know this document exists. I want it to offer people possibilities. It was meant to be an educational document after all," she said. Enditem