Friends of Suai

The Balibo story soon to be released as a dramatic feature film, delineates an aspect of Australian identity in our regional neighbourhood that most Australians have suppressed or would prefer to forget. If anyone is in any doubt about the lack of morality of successive Australian Governments and their double standards in contributing to East Timor’s devastation and material poverty, the short video Black Bullion just uploaded on Suai Media Space should dispel them. Made in 2003 the film shows Australia’s leaders were still deceiving the Australian public after sending in our soldiers to help stop the killing in 1999.

Black Bullion explains in simple terms with some dark humour, Australia’s role in stealing wealth from it’s nearest and poorest neighbour, while thousands of grassroots Australians and others were working hard to rebuild friendship and trust with East Timorese people after the devastating events of 1999 following the referendum.

Balibo forever linked the community of Port Phillip to the people of East Timor because it is the home to relatives of the two journalists:  Shirley Shackleton, Paul Stewart. Shirley’s husband Greg Shackleton and Paul’s brother Tony were two of the journalists killed at Balibo. Shirley became the face of East Timor in some ways in the Australian press as she never allowed her voice to be silenced. Paul made a huge contribution to raising awareness of the young through his involvement in the Dili Allstars whose song Liberdade is known word by word through out Timor.

Clinton Fernandes posted an Australian Coalition for Justice for East Timor.

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No peace without justice in East Timor
Lindsay Murdoch
April 4, 2009
WE CONFRONTED the alleged mass killer as his men were hosing blood off his balcony. Leoneto Martins angrily denied that any massacre had taken place in the East Timorese town where he was the Indonesian-appointed mayor.
No Peace Without Justice in East Timor
Five people had died in clashes between rival groups, he said, before suggesting it might not be safe for myself and three other journalists to remain any longer in Liquica, a seaside town of 55,000 people 30 kilometres west of the capital, Dili.

We suspected Martins was lying.

Shops and markets were closed and the usually busy streets were largely deserted, except for groups of menacing-looking men wearing bandannas and ribbons in the red and white of the Indonesian flag.

Wide-eyed, trembling terror showing in the faces of women searching for family members confirmed something terrible had happened here.

But we didn’t know on that stifling hot April morning the extent and brutality of the violence at the town’s quaint Sao Joao Brito Church, the first of a series of massacres and attacks across East Timor that left about 1500 people dead and thousands more raped, maimed and wounded.

Worshippers in many Catholic churches across Australia were asked to observe a minute’s silence last weekend to mark the 10th anniversary on Monday of what the world came to know as the Liquica massacre.

Eurico Guterres, one of its alleged organisers, will spend the anniversary campaigning across the border in Indonesian West Timor to be elected a member of Indonesia’s national parliament.

Former general Wiranto, the man who was in charge of the military that inflicted terror across East Timor that year, will be campaigning to be elected Indonesia’s next president.

But in East Timor, 10 years has not dimmed the memories or fervour.

“When I speak with the victims, the one thing they ask me is, ‘When will there be justice?”‘ says Christina Carrascalao, who works to help improve the lives of the survivors, many of them poor, illiterate farmers. “I tell them I can’t answer that.”

The then church priest in Liquica, Rafael dos Santos, has retold the story of the massacre many times, the horror of it etched in his memory.

“At first the police shot tear gas into the church. Then they fired periodically into the air. Brimob members (riot police) fired shots in the air. Brimob members shot at people in the church. The Brimob shooting into the air gave a chance for the Besi Merah Puti (pro-Indonesian militia) to enter the church grounds, then the BMP began to massacre the people with arrows and spears. The people hit by the tear gas ran outside with their eyes closed, then the BMP hacked them. The name of this is murder.”

Father Rafael was bustled away at gunpoint by an Indonesian soldier as people inside his house tried to grab his robes, touching them and shouting, “We are dying. We are dying.”

Attackers shot dead people cowering in the priest’s bedroom. When several teenagers hid in the crawl space between the ceiling and the zinc roof, troops climbed on the roof and shot downwards.

Witnesses said the killing continued as machete-swinging militiamen chased people running from the church to Martins’ house, 100 metres away. But there was no sanctuary there.

Numerous inquiries and investigations have put the Liquica death toll at between 30 and 100.

The most commonly accepted figure is 86, the worst massacre in East Timor since the indiscriminate killing at Dili’s Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991.

But only low to mid-level militiamen have been convicted over the massacre or any of the other atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999, with higher ranking personnel, including Indonesian military and police officers, beyond reach in Indonesia.

Martins was among 19 accused who stood trial for crimes against humanity at a tribunal in Jakarta that human rights groups described as a sham. All were eventually acquitted.

Guterres served two years of a 10-year sentence for crimes against humanity before being acquitted on appeal in 2008.

East Timor’s leaders Jose Ramos Horta, a 1996 Nobel laureate, and Xanana Gusmao, a former freedom fighter, oppose calls for an international war crimes tribunal, saying reconciliation is more important than new trials and warning of a possible backlash within elements of the Indonesian military and destabilisation of their country’s fledgling democracy.

Gusmao is scheduled to go to the church this weekend to mark the anniversary. He will not receive the hero’s welcome he did in 1999 when he returned to East Timor after spending six years in a Jakarta jail.

Clinton Fernandes, a former Australian intelligence officer who was reporting on East Timor in 1999, says most…

I just heard the news that Galaxy is coming to Melbourne and that there is to be an exhibition by Arte Moris. I’ll post dates when they come to hand.

Checkout our Interview with charismatic punk Galaxy lead singer Meli with good friend Annie Sloman when they were in Melbourne in 2006.

From their original headquarters in a bombed out house in their hometown of Los Palos, Galaxy has risen from the trauma and chaos of the independence struggle to become one of the most well-respected bands in the world’s newest nation.

Adored by the masses of youth, these tattooed, deadlocked young men are often feared and misunderstood by the church leaders and elites. Galaxy exemplifies rock’n’roll in its essence as the wild energy and raw emotion of youth, all the more powerful and genuine due to the real-life revolutionary context from which they come. With their unique blend of rap, funk, acoustic and hard rock meeting the traditional rhythms of the Fataluku people of the east of Timor and the resistance songs of the independence movement, Galaxy is truly a leader in contemporary Timorese music. Check it out

http://www.myspace.com/galaxytimor

Renowned for tackling tough issues and taking a stand, Galaxy sing candidly about the Timor gap, AIDS, corruption, Timor’s history and the struggle of daily life in a poor and recently independent nation. After playing in every conceivable situation from stadium concerts to lonely mountain towns Galaxy know how to please.

Galaxy are based in Dili at the Arte Moris (Living Art) free art school, where they are supported by Bibi Bulak (Crazy Goats) Performance Arts and Music Troupe which works in theatre, film, dance, music, radio, TV, circus and writing. When not in the studio, Galaxy teach percussion, jembe, music, visual artists at Arte Moris & Bibi Bulak and work as visual and tatoo artists.

Good news from Emanuel Braz, consultant to the International Centre for Journalists. Emanuel assured me the satellite dish is definitely going into Suai and that YoMaTre will have free access to Broadband as a result. Estimated time of arrival in Suai and Broadband arrival last week March!

Global Voices On-line has published an interview with Jen Hughes the writer and documentary-maker behind a our social media project and Suai Media Space in English and Indonesian . Check it out! We are very happy because it is growing our audiences and that is the dream of the youth of Suai – to have their voices heard all over the world.

ENGLISH: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/02/15/east-timor-suai-media-space-challenging-the-digital-

INDONESIAN:  http://id.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/02/134/

Today I joined Technorati to increase audiences for the youth of Suai. A satellite dish is due to be installed in the near future at YoMaTre. Stay posted for more news about this. Once the dish is installed we can expect to see a great presence on suaimediaspace of the youth learning media skills at YoMaTre in Suai.
Technorati Profile

Suai Media Space received news from Ergilio Vicente – Co-ordinator of the Covalima Youth Centre today that their film “Hadame Malu Hemu We Moruk’ – ‘Reconciled by Drinking Sacred Water’, won first prize in a film competition held as part of a recent film festival held in Dili.  The group won a video camera and a special commendation  from his Excellency President Ramos Horta.

Over the past 2 days the Youth Centre has been holding a series of activities with the Pre-secondary  students and Secondary students of Covalima.  In all 11 schools were in involved in the activities.  One was a Quiz contest among Pre secondary students and Secondary students drawing on the subjects of their study.and the other was a Magazine competition.  Ergilio reports Suai Media Space can expect some photographs soon and the video will be uploaded in the New Year when it arrives in Melbourne.

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Suai Media Space received news that the installation of the satellite dish earmarked for Suai  by the International Centre for Journalists, that would see broadband delivered in to Covalima, has been postponed. Emanuel Braz consultant to ICFJ and initiator of the Uma Media Project said on the weekend that ICFJ needed to clarify the relationships with the organisations in Suai before they could go ahead with the installation. Originally ICFJ said that the satellite dish would be installed in October – November.  Andrew Maher of Info Exchange said on Friday that until last week he had understood the project was on track. The Friends of Suai in Port Phillip only became aware of the delay this weekend too. It seems that the Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by all parties has created a stumbling block.

I received an email from Ergilio (Director of the Suai Youth Centre) yesterday while I was working on the first of a series of video letters to Suai …I have to ask him for permission to publish his letter in full .. at the moment he is sharing the news only with me and we want him to share it with you, the readers of our website. but I’m sure he will not mind this quote …
“Mana Jen Diak ka lae……..
We are busy with 12 Nov Massacre and AIDS day on 1st December …. we are organising a photography competition in the schools …. Rgds Egy”

I was in Dili for the Ninth Anniversary of the Santa Cruz Massacre with Veronica Pereira and over the next few days I will be posting video stories. The documentary stories begin with the first ‘Letter to Suai’ ‘Seeking the Light’ The Timorese have a very poetic language and it is often my desire to facilitate as simply as possible, their stories or songs.  Many times I simply take the titles of my films and video letters from their words. This is the case for the first video letter which documents Timorese youth from the Taibisse’s ‘Quiet Moment’ Theatre Group and the ‘Rai Timor’ Theatre Group as they spoke from their hearts from high on the walls of the Santa Cruz Cemetry on November 12, 2000 before leaping to the ground to the sound of a wall of gunfire.

At the time and afterwards I was struck by the insensitivity of the seated guests who, unable to understand their words chattered and whispered throughout the performance despite the shshhh of others who did understand. My Tetun was very limited, and so the performance took me by surprise. I was having difficulties with positioning myself and my audio lead was faulty, creating intermittent crackling sounds. In documentary editing this rough footage would normally be cut out and inclusion of the whole performance would be limited by narrative and time constraints. The raw footage however gives everyone the opportunity to hear directly from these young people, about how they were feeling at that time. This was the first year after the ballot for Independence when Dili and the rest of the country was still devastated by the scorched earth campaign waged by the Indonesian backed militia before they departed. It was a time of mixed grief and trauma, happiness and high hopes for the future. The young men who organised the Remembrance that day,in their introduction, invite their leaders to remember the sacrifice of the people as the lead them out of the valley of tears into the future. In hindsight these words have added poignancy.

Episode two of ‘Seeking the Light’ shows a woman bursting from the crowd crying out an unscripted devastating lament in her native langauge Tetun, calling for recognition that the leadership’s decisions are causing the ordinary people unbearable suffering. Filomena dos Reis who counsels this woman, told me she lost three sons at the Santa Cruz Massacre. As she called for recognition of the pain of ordinary people, her vocal grief was hurriedly muffled by loud strains of music turned on by the organisers. Following this her sincere and powerful lament was replaced by a young girl reciting a rehearsed short history of East Timor in Portuguese, for the benefit of assembled international guests. ‘Seeking the Light’

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When Pat Jessen of the Friends of Suai went shopping to buy tais for the market stall to be set up for the Tais Forum held in St Kilda in early September Annie Sloman introduced her to the family of Chamot who has contributed so much poetry to Suai Media Space recently.

The tais mane (male tais) woven by Orlando Martins originally bought for the market stall at the St Kilda Forum (Weaving: Meanings, Makers & Markets of East Timor), became an outstanding contribution to the Exhibition alongside another feto tais (female tais) from Kamenassa.   We are unsure who wove the female tais, but our photographs show Inveolata (Chamot’s sister ‘In’) weaving a very similar one during the time we were there.

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The tais that Pat bought have been donated to the Alola Foundation Collection and I thought it was time to publish the photographs of Orlando and Inveolata, their family and friends in situ in Kamenassa where they live and work as a way of presenting just two of the makers whose work was represented in the Forum Exhibition. Over the next few days I will also be putting up a soundscape and some video footage of weavers in situ on Suai Loro Road in 2000. There is a lot more story to tell about the role of the tais in the recovery of East Timor through our stories of Suai and video footage shot in June this year will contribute to the story next year.

The photographs in this story were taken by the Suai Media Space/Friends of Suai/YoMaTre workshop in Suai at the Youth Centre in June this year while they were preparing their story about the tais of Covalima.  Two of the workshop students ( Densi and Jem) are shown in our photographs modelling the tais.

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Densi is related to Orlando  I think but Jem ( who we nicknamed Che, because of his hat) is from a different village. Also included are photographs Densi and Che had taken of them when asked to take a photograph that used symbolism to express an aspect of their identity. I have included these because although Densi (who is a weaver herself) was enthusiastic about modelling her tais Jem was embarrassed at first, shying away from this kind of display. But when you see how they represented themselves in their own stories, it throws a different light on the who these young people are beyond their traditional background.

In her own representation of herself Densi is standing in front of the District Administration offices in her suit (which she probably had to put on especially for the photograph), while Jem is standing very stylishly next to an Indonesian monument that declares Suai is an ‘Art City’.

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I couldn’t resist publishing the photographs of the little girl I noticed playing with a little traditional shelter  she had made from sticks with her friend who escaped the photographer’s frame, and the little girl carrying rice in a woven reed basket as she walked across the green behind an older girl (who also escaped the frame). One of the student teams was doing a project on traditional housing and another on traditional food, so the photographs were taken for their benefit.  I have include them here, where they were taken, because they show so beautifully how traditional cultural practices are being passed on to the kids in the rural areas.

Two  photographs also show the traditional housing style of the area and how woven screens are used to add privacy to verandahs. If you look closely in this one you can see the Mosquito net strung up on the verandah and news items and photographs pinned up on the woven screen next to it. Other housing is a mixture of traditional and contemporary with cement floors and besser brick walls some with corrugated iron roofing others still preferring to use the traditional grass roofing. We finished our photo shoot that day enjoying the traditional hospitality of Chamot’s family on the verandah of their house with a delicious Caffe Timor.

Pat has ordered another tais from Orlando who has promised in June that it will be ready in a year or so. We look forward to showing this one on Suai Media Space in the future.