A newly improved edition of the Cook Islands Māori Bible is scheduled to be released at the end of the month in New Zealand.
The Bible project was led by Cook Islands Rev. Robert Robati-Mani and his late wife, Marina Robati-Mani.
It began in 2017, when the Bible Society announced that the existing hard copy of the Cook Islands Māori Bible could no longer be reprinted.
The couple was asked to prepare and format the new edition for publication.
The work built on previous efforts of volunteers from New Zealand, Australia, and across the Pacific. That group represented various Christian denominations and manually typed the entire Bible from printed text into a digital format.
Cook Islands News reports that this electronic version made the scriptures globally accessible in Māori.
Years later, the Bible Society invited Robati-Mani again to help bring a newly printed hard copy edition to life for Cook Islands communities.
The new edition, known as the Bibilia Tapu, is reprinted from the 1888 edition, last printed in 1972. It aims to preserve the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Cook Islands while making it more accessible to modern readers.
