Paul Cleary: the author of this article was a World Bank-appointed adviser to the first East Timor government. He is the author of Shakedown — Australia’s grab for Timor oil.

Since then the Friends of Suai have been celebrating the ten years with a range of activities. The first was an exhibition held in The Gallery St Kilda Town Hall titled Connections Across the Timor Sea – Memory Friendship and Future.

On September 9 President Jose Ramos Horta will visit Port Phillip and attend a civic reception to be held in the St Kilda Town Hall. On the following day the 10th September Friends of Suai will hold a Schools Forum in the Town Hall. ) President Jose Ramos Hort will give a speech titled ‘Facing the Future’ about regional partnerships and getting connected with our Asian neighbours as well as the challenges and rewards for Australia. According to Co-ordinator of Friends of Suai Pat Jessen  a federal politician, still be be announced, will be speaking on the real challenges regional politics has for ordinary Australians.

The most exciting thing about the morning is the fact it will bring together for the first time in Port Phillip Aboriginal culture and Timorese culture as an Aboriginal elder will provide a ‘Welcome to Country’ and Timorese music and traditional dancers will welcome guests.

Schools are invited to attend and participate in a plenary for students to consider what they think about staying connected with East Timor.

A unique glimpse of a young teenager (Armindo), telling his story in song – accompanying himself on a beautiful little home made ukelele.  Recorded  by the documentary-maker 7 months after the Suai Church Massacre on the verandah of a house rehabilitated for the use of Timor Aid.

It is intended to show the interests, pre-occupations and concerns of people in the friendship, beyond political agendas and business.

The project to show this work comes from faith in the idea that art forms and artists have the ability to assist cross-border conversations in unique and eloquent ways.  Cultural knowledge of East Timor is limited in Australia; Australian mass media representations of Timor,  primarily as a site of conflict, violence, poverty, incapacity and instability mean positive images of the people and their culture have been rare in this country. Because deep knowledge of our regional neighbours is limited, it would be easy for many, who have been more exposed to Indonesian culture and the rhetoric of political suppression during the Indonesian occupation, to assume that the culture of Timor is the same as the culture of Indonesia, which it is not. There are connections that reflect migration patterns of people, geographical proximity, colonialism, religion and the impact of modernism, and both cultures have animist roots, but they are in essence very different from say Javanese and Balinese culture. Wikipedia: Culture of Asia Culture of East Timor

Port Phillip, especially St Kilda, is well known for it’s strength and interest in the arts.   According to some media workshop students in 2008  Cova Lima Suai was really a town of arts and known as Suai Cidade Arte. In their story the students bemoan the fact that during the 1999 violence everything was looted and destroyed but there are many young people living there who are artistically talented and frequently unemployed.

It is hoped that artists, musicians  and writers of all kinds in Port Phillip and elsewhere will take the opportunity to indulge in some cultural exchange through the Social Network and form independent friendships that will help the young people of Suai build positive futures.

It is possible to become an ‘author’ on Suai Media Space and generate pages that help uncover the people and culture of Port Phillip for the people of Suai. (It is not within the capacity of the writer to do all this alone: see ‘contact us.’). The simplest way to do it is through the Social Network to begin with otherwise contact the writer.  All young people over ten speak Indonesian. There are increasing numbers of Timorese youth in Suai who are learning English, and Tetun lessons are available in Melbourne. In addition there is a large Timorese community in Melbourne. The language difference can be overcome when the motivation requires it as friends and relatives will translate for each other.

The most recent images of paintings, drawings and carvings  have been provided by the artists and/or Gabriela and Luca Gansser of Arte Moris the free art school in Dili where some of the most talented youth from Suai have been living and studying. Natalino dos Reis Pires is a senior artist there. The Massacre Art, the public art in the form of graffiti, stencils and painted works on architectural spaces, as well as music and other works have been collected by the writer over many years. All the art presented here is by artists from Cova Lima Suai. The photographs have been taken and the videos made in workshops or put up on to Suai Media Space Social Network.

Sergio da Costa’s bedroom is also his studio and when he was short of materials he painted on his walls. On the exterior walls of the house Disney characters  but inside more political art was the order of the day. It would have been dangerous to have this on his bedroom wall, but not as dangerous as in public. I don’t know when it was painted. I filmed it in 2000. This work is a telling comment on his experience of Pancasila. According to the wikipedia Religion is stated as the first principle of the State ideology of Indonesia.

Perhaps the most interesting are ‘East Timor‘ and ‘Habelun ho Lafaek‘ that provide interesting global and mythological perspectives on the island of East Timor. (see cultural notes on crocodile myth) Once again we find women in the landscape and just one man who could be Xanana in ‘Director Liberty’ overlooking a devastated landscape covered with bodies and guns while a young man holds up the Timorese flag. Other interesting landscape works are in the Bundoora Exhibition and Paintings on Tais.