Suai Media Space

Hanesan lalenok hatudu lalatak
Botir rahun halo kanek
Tua sabu fo lanu
Isin ne’e nunka mohu

Anin bo’ot kasu uma kakuluk
Laloran tasi baku ha’u nia bero
Tanba moderno kamera hasai ha’u nia oin
Kruz ida ha’u iha atu salva o nia vida

Kultura naklekar modernu mai sobu
Uma du’ut ita nian isin klamar rai lulik
Hodi walan hahoris lalatak mundu ne’e
Manu aman kokorek naraman foun foin mosu

Tudik tesi du’ut
Ibun derok ko’a o nia isin
Foin senti moris furak
Hanoin aat mai sobu

Liman rasan: Sancho chamot Alves Nahac
Bibi Bulak 06-10-07

I video-taped this graffiti in July 2000 which was 11 months after the massacres that forced the whole population of Suai to flee to the hills in September 1999. I will post a video asap.

[Note: Click on a photo to get the ‘gallery’ to pop up then scroll through the gallery using the ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ buttons near the top on the sides.]

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This graffiti is all written in Indonesian - whereas now (2008) it is mostly in Tetun or Portuguese reflecting the real changes in the language being used daily and to whom the graffiti artists are addressing their comments.

The graffiti in Suai in June this year conveys a strong sense of protest about the imposing of Portuguese as the official language by the new Timorese Government since Independence. All of this graffiti has been written here since 2006 when the country under-went a huge political crisis.

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It’s notable also that the direct messages to Australia have changed dramatically since the early graffiti I photographed in 2000 when the mood was one of gratitude and other images and messages were euphoric addressed to militia and Indonesian leaders with people named or drawn on to the walls.

Tetun version
Most of the wall art is clustered on the walls around the market where the energy in the town is most concentrated every day of the week, and especially on Saturdays. Much of the work in this gallery is by Almeida. It is not difficult to see some of his influences and obsessions in this work. There is apparently another interesting artist somewhere by the name of Melita - where are you Melita?

[Note: Click on one of these photographs: they are in a 'gallery' that pops up so you can scroll through them using the 'Next' and 'Back' buttons on the right hand & left hand sides near the top.]

[Show as slideshow]

All of this graffiti and wall art has been written or painted in these spaces since I was in Suai in February 2006 and it reflects the political crisis the country went through in 2006 and 2007. Alfredo Reinaldo was the leader of a rebel group who was accused of being the cause of the trouble but was seen as a hero of the ’small people’ by many who felt frustrated by the political leadership.

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The Art of Healing was screened at a fundraiser for Arte Moris & Bibi Bulak in St Kilda’s Theatreworks in mid 2006 so they could continue to work with people despite the fact they were in refugee camps.

Cut to the music of Bibi Bulak (Silly Goat) Theatre Co. The Art of Healing is an upbeat ride through the self expression of some Timorese youth from art on their bedroom walls to street art and graffiti, this little video paints a very different picture of Timorese youth to that shown in Australian mainstream media.