This site was designed to share information about the work of the Kulu Language Institute and provide links to work on the languages and cultures of Ranongga.
We hope that it will be used by residents of Ranongga island interested in learning to read, write, and analyse their languages; by other Solomon Islanders and people from all around the Pacific who want to document and analyse their own languages and cultures; scholars and educators interested in vernacular language education and language revitalisation.
Dr Alpheaus G. Zobule
Dr Alpheaus G. Zobule is a Luqa speaker and Bible Translator of the Luqa language. He is a Translation Consultant to several Bible Translation Projects in the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea. He is founder and Director of Kulu Language Institute that focuses on the vernacular literacy program relating to Luqa and Kubokota languages on Ranonga Island in the Western Province in Solomon Islands. He is also Founder and Executive Director of Islands Bible Ministries which administers Bible translation projects and other ministries in the Solomon Islands and Principal of Islands Christian College (the training arm of Islands Bible Ministries) which organizes Bible courses, Biblical language (Greek and Hebrew) courses, English Grammar courses. He has a strong interest in designing a linguistic program that will equip nationals to study their own vernaculars.
Dr Debra McDougall
Dr Debra McDougall was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. She is now a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Melbourne in Australia. She first visited Ranongga in 1996. She was welcomed to live in Pienuna village in 1998 for nearly two years as part of her PhD research, and she has returned many times in the years since then. Since 2016, she has been working with Dr Zobule to better understand the effects of the Kulu Language Institute and what it means for people to study the grammar or her own language. In 2017, then principle of the Kulu Institute Izikeli Moata gave her two titles to add to her academic titles of PhD and Senior Lecturer and to encourage her to continue to spread the news about the work of Kulu: Iligagani and varene. You can see links to her scholarly work about Ranongga in the talks and publications page.