For Tetun version - Fatuk Dadulas
The circle of stones the people of Suai placed outside the church where the Suai Church Massacre took place in September 1999 provided an inspiring example of how profoundly simple communication can be.
The Suai Church Massacre and its surrounding events led to the need for the communities of Cova Lima-Suai and Pt Phillip to communicate with each other.
With infrastructure destroyed and absolutely no communication tools - not even pens or paper - people placed rocks where their loved ones had died to commemorate them. The rocks were bare at first. Then as time passed and more rocks were placed, they began to be inscribed very simply with names and dates. As resources flowed into the community, gradually over time, the commemorative objects multiplied, they became more intricately inscribed and some stones became more crafted. Some stones were sculpted and some were embedded with photographs.
When the time came for remembrance on the First Anniversary of the massacre, the Circle of Stones became a sacred site for an outpouring of grief and mourning, that had grown from a single circle of bare rocks into to a circle piled with rocks covered with flowers and candles.
The Monument in these photographs was prepared for the Mass with Bishop Belo. Bishop Hilton Deakin, an old friend of East Timor from Melbourne, attended. The names of all those who died in 1999 were beautifully hand -written on the monument which was decorated with the traditional tais.
The Circle of Stones inspired the first documentary I made in this collection. A call for justice the first screening of the Circle of Stones was in the St Kilda Town Hall in Pt Phillip, at an event also called the Circle of Stones.
This event was held to commemorate the Second Anniversary of the massacre.
At that event the Pt Phillip community were invited to bring rocks inscribed with messages for the people of Suai.
A short documentary was made about that and both films have been given to the Suai community. All the rocks painted by Pt Phillip mourners will be placed on a linked page shortly. (April 08)
Photographs of these painted and inscribed rocks with messages of hope and empathy are in conversation-rocks. They are their to provide “conversation starters’ through which people in our communities might take up and make visible a Hidden Conversation begun seven years ago.