Suai Media Space

written by Pedro Lebre – Villa Harmonia, Dili.

Pedro gave me this poem also for sms on June 14, 2003 (only available in Tetun we are waiting on a volunteer to translate it.)

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I wrote this poem in 2000. I rang the East Timor Human Rights Centre to make an appointment. Ana Noronha told me that they were compiling a register of names of people who died and who were missing. She also told me that women in East Timor were picking up bones from the ground and secreting them in tais (the traditional cloth of East Timor), until they could conduct remembrance ceremonies with dignity. I was moved to write Bones (Ruin).

I have learned that though few of us are poets, when circumstances in life move us very deeply, the need to speak from the heart can become overwhelming and often it comes in poetic form. This was one of those moments for me. Read the rest of this entry »

I met Filomena when she was in Suai for the First Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre in September 2000. She was directing a re-enactment of that massacre to assist with the healing of the people of Suai. The re-enactment was accompanied by an appeal, to the international community present, for justice.

I didn’t see Filomena again until 2005 briefly when she was here for a conference. The first film I made titled ‘The Circle of Stones’ intercuts Filomena’s play with the story of the Suai Church Massacre and the grieving taking place in front of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Suai where the massacre took place. I had sent her a copy of the video and I knew somehow that she had taken it to the U.S. in 2002 when she made a tour of that country saying “the women of East Timor are screaming for justice” . I think I read an article in the paper titled ‘Screaming for Justice’.

On this trip Filomena stayed with me and told me a lot more about that film and how she used it. When she was invited to speak to the U.S. Senate Filomena elected to screen ‘The Circle of Stones’. We are still waiting for justice. Filomena has a funny story to tell about this so I’m looking forward to her telling here in this space in the near future.

On Jen’s verandah Nov.2007

This poem written in 1999, has been published in ‘Written in Blood’ by Filomena Barros dos Reis. Performed November 10th 2007 at the Boite Cafe to Commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre.

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