Lian Ida - one voice;
standing in the gap for Timor-Leste
Concertina Artist’s Book & Audio Files 2018 170 x 26 x 4cm in accordion form
Linocut on cotton rag, handmade Khadi paper, handmade Timorese tais, transperancy and reclaimed books; silkscreen on Khadi paper and old postcards; typewriter type on found paper; muslin, cotton thread, split pins, board, cloth.
32G USB stick in bespoke wooden box containing twelve audio files (2 mins. each in length) from interviews by the artist that have been archived in the Library of Congress. QR code for easy online access to interviews. Presentation box with ribbon.
I approached six Timorese and six Australian women to tell their stories – women who have stood in the gap for Timor-Leste over decades by putting themselves in the middle of Timor’s very broken, messy, human need; into the gap that separates Australia and post-conflict Timor-Leste. Because Timor-Leste is a patriarchal society, its international profile dominated by the male voice and because Australia’s policy makers regarding Timor-Leste have historically been male, I believed it important that this work speak from a female perspective.
Each interview was recorded in full and archived, through Storycorp, in the Library of Congress. They can be heard on my Standing in the Gap page.
Dr Kirsty Sword Gusmao, AO
Kirsty remembers the day she hid her three boys under the bed while gunmen roamed the hills above their home outside Dili. (2:55mins.)
Kirsty was Timor-Leste's first First Lady and in 2015, was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to Australia Timor-Leste relations and for her work in Timor-Leste.
Elizabeth (Betti) Exposto
Betti shares two stories from her teenage years - returning to occupied East Timor for the first time in 1989, and an unusual evening spent in Brooklyn, New York while travelling the country as a Timorese Youth Ambassador in 1993. (3:46mins.)
Betti is the Chief Executive of the Maritime Boundary Office in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Christine Perkins
Christine remembers returning to a burning Baucau with hundreds of displaced Timorese who, following the Vote for Independence, had fled from the Indonesian militia by travelling to Bali in September 1999. (3:34mins.)
Christine sits on the Board of the Alola Foundation, an NGO operating in Timor-Leste to improve the lives of women and children.
(Adriana) Grace Pitanuki
Grace shares her story about the day a young multiple-rape victim came to Casa Vida - a shelter for child victims of sexual abuse in Dili. (2:04mins.)
Grace works for Casa Vida as an administrator.
Helen Kenneally
Helen remembers caring for a young Timorese machete victim - Philomena - who came to Australia for medical treatment. (1:44mins.)
Helen is the daughter of East Timor veteran Paddy Kenneally; she has a background in Education and has been a policy advisor to Timor-Leste's Mother Tongue Program.
Kim McGrath
Kim remembers her return to the town of Balibo, where five Australian journalists were killed and the local community massacred in 1975. (1:36mins.)
Kim is a Research Director at the Bracks Timor-Leste Governance Project and has recently published her PhD concerning Australia and Timor-Leste's historic struggle over oil and gas in the Timor Sea: "Crossing the Line: Australia's Secret History in the Timor Sea.", Black Inc, 2017
Juavita Pereira Faria
Juavita shares her story of a childhood lost under Indonesian military occupation. (1:47mins.)
Juavita grew up in occupied East Timor and eventually wants to lead her people as a judge.
Judit Ribeiro da Conceicao
Judi shares her childhood dream of becoming nun and compares that dream with her reality. (0:48mins.)
Judi founded the domestic violence shelter FOKUPERS in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Nandy Gurr
Nandy remembers helping to keep a tiny premature baby alive following the death of his mother, who gave birth in a canoe between the island of Atauro and Dili in 2008. (3:44mins.)
Nandy takes a team from her Ringwood based church to Timor-Leste every year, scoping for projects that her community can support.
Acy Lodja
Acy recalls how, as an Indonesian pastor, she tried to bring healing to the youth of Dili when she arrived in 2000. (3:11mins.)
Acy is an Indonesian Pastor who works for peace and reconciliation in her community in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Catharina Williams Van Klinken
Catharina recalls the time she spent in the remote village of Suai, assisting with the 1999 Vote for Independence, just before the Indonesians massacred hundreds of people in the Suai church. (3:53mins.)
Catharina is a Tetun language specialist and the Director of the Centre of Language Studies in Dili, Timor-Leste who has recently finished translating the Bible into Tetun.
(Maria) Ti Ti da Costa
Ti Ti shares about the birth of her daughter on the day the Referendum was announced in Dili, and of her subsequent flight - under cover of darkness - into the hills of Dare to escape the Indonesian military as they murdered and burnt their way out of the country following the Vote for Independence. (2:08mins.)
Ti Ti grew up in the impoverished rural districts of East Timor during the Occupation and is now Nanny to two adopted East Timorese girls whose Australian mother works in Dili, Timor-Leste.
