International Conference TLSA-PT

Timor-Leste:The Island and the World

7 – 11 September 2020Online Conference

Accepted panels

The Scientific Committee of TLSAPT2020: Timor-Leste, The Island and the World has approved 16 panels.

01. Timor-Leste: línguas, literaturas, letramentos e cosmovisões em debate

Alexandre Cohn da Silveira Instituto de Humanidades e Letras - Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-brasileira (IHL-UNILAB), BRASIL
Hérica Pinheiro Ministério do Ensino Superior, Ciência e Cultura - Timor-Leste (MESCC-TL), TIMOR-LESTE; Faculdade de Letras - Universidade de Coimbra (FL-UC), PORTUGAL

O presente painel se propõe a promover o debate interdisciplinar no que tange às questões linguísticas timorenses, em suas diversas manifestações e modalidades, observando os aspectos peculiares históricos, políticos, sociais e culturais que permeiam as dinâmicas linguísticas nas diversas regiões de Timor-Leste, bem como nas diásporas. Entende-se que os processos de letramento, ensino de línguas e multiculturalismo timorense incitam formas diferenciadas de entendimento dos processos e procedimentos linguístico-literários, bem como estão imbricados em lógicas e cosmovisões diversas das tradições ocidentalizadas e eurocentradas. O objetivo central deste painel é o debate amplo e aprofundado do diálogo entre cultura e línguas timorenses, construção de identidades e organização dos discursos que constituem, interna e externamente ao país, o que se entende por Timor-Leste e suas gentes.

02. Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia no Timor-Leste: leituras práxicas

Samuel Penteado Urban Departamento de Educação - Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (DE-CAP-UERN), BRASIL

O contexto educacional atual de Timor-Leste é resultado de processos históricos ligados ao paradigma da apropriação/violência (Santos, 2009). Em contraponto, em meio a luta pela restauração da independência, inicia-se um processo de Educação Popular, mais especificamente no que se refere a Pedagogia Maubere, que destaca-se pelo uso de formas alternativas de educação e ação, utilizando-se de conhecimentos populares e outros advindos da ciência moderna, que se aproximam muito do que se entende por Tecnologia Social na perspectiva de Dagnino (2009), Novaes e Dias (2009) e Thomas e Santos (2016). Após a restauração da independência, surgem manifestações práxicas acerca da Tecnologia Social na sua íntima relação com a educação, que englobam tanto a educação escolar oficial, quanto o ambiente da educação popular. O objetivo da presente proposta é de externalizar e discutir essas experiências práxicas na íntima relação entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Educação.

03. Land tenure in Timor-Leste: between resilient custom and the resurgent state

Susanna Barnes Department of Archaeology and Anthropology - University of Saskatchewan (DArch&Anth-USask), CANADA

This panel focuses on the development and implementation of Timor-Leste’s land law. While the Land Law (RDTL 13/2017) largely reflects international discourses of ‘best practice’ aimed at securing land and property rights and reducing tenure insecurity, tensions remain in relation to resilient customary practices and the resurgent state. Panelists will explore how different meanings and values relating to land and natural resources are articulated in relation to custom and the State; the contingent and contextual nature of these meanings and values and the implications of this for the implementation of land legislation.

04. The East Timorese Resistance: A Transnational History

Michael Leach Faculty of Health, Arts and Design - Swinburne University of Technology, AUSTRALIA
Zélia Pereira Centro de Estudos Sociais - Universidade de Coimbra (CES-UC), PORTUGAL

Reflecting major research agendas currently being pursued in relation to Timor-Leste’s struggle for self-determination, the panel welcomes papers examining the history of the East Timorese resistance from 1975-1999, and the transnational links with state and non-state actors that helped support it. Papers examining all aspect of the domestic military and clandestine resistance are welcome; along with those examining the transnational aspects of this history, including the history of the diplomatic front.

*A organização deste painel enquadra-se nas actividades desenvolvidas ao abrigo do Projecto de Investigação “A Autodeterminação de Timor-Leste: um estudo de História Transnacional” (FCT/ PDTC/HAR-HIS/30670/2017).

05. International solidarity with the struggle for Timor-Leste self-determination

David Webster Bishop's University, CANADA
Hannah Loney School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Faculty of Arts - University of Melbourne (SHAPS-UniMelb), AUSTRALIA
Rui Graça Feijó Centro de Estudos Sociais - Universidade de Coimbra (CES-UC), PORTUGAL

This panel welcomes papers focusing on the international solidarity with Timor-Leste long struggle for self-determination. Solidarity was both expressed by friendly nations in their official capacity, and by grassroots, civic movements in a variety of countries.

*A organização deste painel enquadra-se nas actividades desenvolvidas ao abrigo do Projecto de Investigação “A Autodeterminação de Timor-Leste: um estudo de História Transnacional” (FCT/ PDTC/HAR-HIS/30670/2017).

06. Atauro peoples’ local knowledge and cultural policies. Preliminary findings of an interdisciplinary research

Kelly Silva Departamento de Antropologia - Universidade de Brasília (DAN-UNB), BRASIL; London School of Economics and Political Science - University of London (LSE-University of London), REINO UNIDO; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), BRASIL

The panel aims to share results of research carried out in Atauro during the last decade, in a multi-disciplinary approach. Three particular issues are to be discussed: 1. Dynamics of production and reproduction of local knowledge and their impact on people cosmology and everyday life; 2. Cultural policies led by governance agents as the State, local leaders, non-governmental organizations, churches, among others; 3. The impact of local knowledge on the making of biodiversity and other cultural heritage. To unveil some of the complex mediations by which collective life (of human and non-human) has been negotiated in Atauro is the main objective of the panel.

07. Timor-Leste and ASEAN: political discontents and social clashes in an (un)making ecumene

Paulo Castro Seixas Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Políticas - Universidade de Lisboa (ISCSP-UL), PORTUGAL; Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia Program (CRISEA); Projeto FCT "As Crianças e o seu Direito à Cidade" (CRICITY)
Nuno Canas Mendes Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Políticas - Universidade de Lisboa (ISCSP-UL), PORTUGAL; Instituto do Oriente - Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Políticas - Universidade de Lisboa (IO-ISCSP-UL), PORTUGAL
Nadine Lobner Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia Program (CRISEA)

This panel is part of a CRISEA research which has been undertaken in the past two years, funded by the EU H2020 research and innovation program. Timor-Leste’s membership to ASEAN, firstly submitted in 2011, remains under observation. It is by now the longest attempt of a country to join the grouping, without any resolution in sight. We may ask how ASEAN’s centrality is played in this particular case and how the delay of admitting the small country precisely tackles the (des)integration processes of the regional grouping. The main turning points in the chronology of the political process of the ASEAN membership for Timor-Leste will be explored as internal and external discontents, considering Timor-Leste’s resistance towards the Indonesian occupation as starting point. By analyzing internal discontents, we disclose the political framework of the country. Through the external discontents, the aim is to reveal ASEAN’s perspective on the admission procedure. Furthermore, a sociological point of view regarding the admission procedure to ASEAN will be presented through three groups of interest in Timor-Leste (political actors, civil society representatives, youth). Informants’ narratives and perceptions will be outlined in order to elaborate on Inside-Outside relations in which the clash of egos in a clientelist context; the negotiation gap and the shadow of external invasion are going to be presented as main issues. Finally, international regionalism is tackled as ecumene projections in which international media, the role of states and common people play different but relevant roles. Within this context, three ideal types of “ecumene” are going to be discussed, which bring Timor-Leste’s position within a global scale into perspective.

08. Using visual media and creative approaches in communicating activism and struggles for social change: the case of Timor-Leste

Marisa Ramos Gonçalves Centro de Estudos Sociais - Universidade de Coimbra (CES-UC), PORTUGAL
Vannessa Hearman Charles Darwin University (CDU), AUSTRALIA

Activism, its task of reimagining an alternative future in particular, has been bound up with creative expression and practice throughout the world. Protesters have used arts-derived forms of expression to demand social and political change, from visual formats such as photographs and posters to the performance of music and theatre. This panel examines how visual media and the arts have been deployed not only as a way to critique and contest inequitable power structures, but also to share and relate histories of activism and struggles in- and about East Timor/Timor-Leste, including in museums and educational institutions. In Timor-Leste, visual media and arts have been used to memorialise the struggle to resist colonialism, to foster a sense of national identity and to address the need to tell East Timorese histories and transmit them to younger generations. In this panel, researchers analyse how the arts and the visual media have been used in Timor-Leste to memorialise the past, to communicate histories of activism as well as how they are used in rights campaigns today. Internationally, activism in support of East Timor during the Indonesian annexation relied on visual arts such as photography, film, painting and drawing to convey something of this contested territory and help bind viewers to the plight of the people there. The research presented looks into how visual images and creative media have been used in relating experiences of activism and the telling of East Timorese histories, as well as their limitations.

09. Uma Lulik: rebuilding houses and communities

Susana de Matos Viegas Universidade de Lisboa (UL), PORTUGAL
Lisa Palmer University of Melbourne (UniMelb), AUSTRALIA
Andrew McWilliam Western Sydney University (UWS), AUSTRALIA

The widespread reconstruction of large ancestral ritual houses, known as uma lulik (sacred house), continue to be a prominent feature of the landscape of contemporary Timor-Leste. In their distinctive diversity of architectural styles, uma lulik represent symbolically charged ritual centres for the celebration of group identity and the reproduction of social alliances that signpost a localized return to custom. In this panel we are interested in papers that approach ‘the house’ from one or more of the following inter-related perspectives. Namely; 1) The rebuilding of Uma Lulik as a continuing and widespread feature or post conflict recovery and the extent of innovation in the newly constructed built forms; 2) as focal sites for the enactment and reproduction of its membership and alliance networks; 3) as sites for communication with house ancestors and the more-than-human world to secure their protection and support; 4) as centres for local governance, and the ritual management of the agricultural cycle and the natural resources of the domain. 5) as an (elusive) representative of Timorese national patrimony and government policy making.

10. Recursos, Ambiente e Território - uma perspetiva transdisciplinar

Pedro Damião Henriques Departamento de Economia - Centro de Estudos e Formação Avançada em Gestão e Economia - Universidade de Évora (DE-CEFAGE-UE), PORTUGAL; Instituto Mediterrâneo para a Agricultura, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento - Universidade de Évora (MED-UE), PORTUGAL; Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas (ICAAM-UE), PORTUGAL
Vanda Narciso Investigadora Independente

Os territórios são historicamente construídos, refletindo a interação entre as comunidades humanas e os recursos biofísicos, originando padrões socioeconómicos e culturais diversos. A ilha de Timor, e Timor –Leste em particular, são exemplo dessa diversidade. Nos recursos salientamos os de base geológica e os ligados aos ecossistemas naturais e seminaturais, englobando nestes últimos os sistemas agrícolas, pecuários e agroflorestais e nos primeiros os recursos minerais e energéticos. A presente sessão acolherá trabalhos que reflitam sobre o papel dos recursos no ambiente e no território e como a interacção destes factores influencia a diversidade, a cultura, o desenvolvimento e o bem-estar das populações em Timor-Leste. Assim são bem-vindos trabalhos, entre outras áreas, de geologia, energia, agricultura, florestas e ecossistemas naturais e seminaturais.

11. Developing Language and Literacy Policy in a Global Age: The Case of Timor-Leste

Marilyn Martin-Jones MOSAIC Group for Research on Multilingualism - University of Birmingham (MOSAIC-University of Birmingham), UK
Estêvão Cabral BABYLON Center for the Study of Superdiversity - Tilburg University (BABYLON-Tilburg University), NETHERLANDS

The proposed panel makes the case for critical ethnographic research into the processes involved in language-in-education policy-making in nations in the Global South, such as Timor-Leste. We argue that research of this nature allows us to take account of: (1.) the discursive and ideological challenges facing nation-states and educational institutions in developing language and literacy policy in a global age, and (2.) the specific situated ways in which globalised discursive and ideological processes shape local debates, local policy processes and pedagogic practice. In making our case, we draw on recent policy-related research of a critical ethnographic nature that has been conducted in different sectors of education in Timor-Leste. We present the findings of four studies focusing, in turn, on the sectors f primary education, teacher education, higher education and adult literacy. In 2002, Timor-Leste became the first new nation of the twenty-first century, after 24 years of occupation by Indonesia and after more than four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. On Independence, Portuguese and Tetum (a lingua franca and the most widely spoken local language) were adopted as co-official languages and the regional languages of Timor-Leste were defined as ‘national languages’, while English and Bahasa Indonesia were designated as ‘working languages’. As in many post-colonial contexts, the government of this multilingual nation has faced challenges of a logistical, discursive and ideological nature, in implementing this language and literacy policy, particularly in the educational sector (for details, see Boon, 2019; Taylor-Leech, 2009; Cabral, 2013; Cabral and Martin-Jones, 2018). These challenges have been compounded by the expansion of bi- and multi-lateral cooperation and of the role and influence of supra-national bodies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating internationally. As scholars, such as Duchêne (2009) have observed, supra-national bodies and international NGOs have become significant new sites for the production of discourses about multilingualism and about literacy, as the power of nation-states (particularly those in the Global South) has been eroded within the new global order. In this panel, we will examine different discourses about language, literacy, multilingualism, education and nation-building which have surfaced in Timor-Leste over the last decade or so in national and institutional policy-making, in policy documents produced by international agencies and in debates that have taken place in civil society. We also consider some of the ways in which local social actors, in different contexts – teachers in schools and universities, teacher educators and coordinators of adult literacy programmes – make sense of and navigate these wider discourses as they deal with the daily challenge of translating language-in-education policies into pedagogic practice. The panel draws together researchers from Australia, Brazil, The Netherlands, Timor-Leste and the United Kingdom who have been engaged in research related to language and literacy policy and practice in different sectors of education in Timor-Leste.

12. Military Occupation and Sexual Violence against Women in Timor-Leste: A Search for Historical Justice and Healing

Akihisa Matsuno Osaka School of International Public Policy - Osaka University (OSIPP-Osaka University), JAPAN

Violence in wartime has a gender-specific dimension. Sexual violence is used in a war situation, often systematically, as a weapon or an instrument of war. Such violence may constitute a war crime or a crime against humanity, and often has lasting impact on the survivors and their families. But the plight of the survivors are often paid too little attention in the post-war process, and their experiences and their struggle are often given too little space in the history written later. Women in Timor-Leste experienced various forms of sexual violence in two periods of military occupation by the Japanese and by the Indonesians. Stories of the victims and survivors have been made available through reports and books, albeit in a limited scale, and their calls for justice and measures to address their immediate needs have been known through statements, activities and media reports. The panel presents results of a decade-long research into the Japanese military sexual slavery system in Timor-Leste during the Second World War. The panel also reports on lingering effects of sexual violence from the Indonesian occupation period on the survivors to this day. Then, the panel examines sexual violence of the two periods from a comparative perspective and discusses state responsibility, the global movement against impunity, and the importance of solidarity with the Timor-Leste women's struggle against violence.

13. Ensino a distância: Experiências e Práticas de Ensino a Distância em Timor e Portugal

Darlinda Moreira Universidade Aberta (UAb), PORTUGAL

Este painel tem como objetivo refletir sobre o Ensino a Distância online e sobre a sua transferibilidade e implementação em diferentes ambientes educativos em tempos de pandemia. Juntando docentes da Universidade Aberta de Portugal e da Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa’e apresentam-se propostas e modelos para os processos de ensino e aprendizagem, em especial o Modelo Pedagógico Virtual da Universidade Aberta e partilham-se experiências e práticas atuais de ensino a distância, a partir dos quais se abordam assuntos tais como: ferramentas e desenhos de unidades curriculares de matemática e estatística; as redes sociais como espaços formais e informais para práticas online; a influência dos contextos e das necessidades locais na disseminação do ensino digital; a forma como o ensino superior timorense aplica o ensino à distância em especial nos tempos de covid-19.

14. Memorialisation and History in Timor-Leste: Beyond a nation-building narrative, towards the knowledge of plural histories?

David Webster Bishop's University, CANADA
Marisa Ramos Gonçalves Centro de Estudos Sociais - Universidade de Coimbra (CES-UC), PORTUGAL

Memorialisation and historical research projects have been thriving in Timor-Leste in recent years, after a period of relative absence of Timorese authorship in historical research and memorialisation projects since the country regained independence in 2002. In the initial years of independence, historical research, curriculum development and archives/museums projects were mostly undertaken by foreign researchers or with significant external support. More recently, a movement for the 'timorisation' of historical production and memorialisation has gained momentum. History in Timor-Leste, as elsewhere, is key to developing nationalist foundational histories and mobilising contemporary political projects. The national narrative has focused on the history of resistance against Indonesian occupation. Since 2014, several Timorese oral history research and writing initiatives have attempted to go beyond nationalist narratives, focussing on the role and histories of women, the younger generations and the diasporas. This panel invites presentations which discuss and reflect on methodological aspects and challenges, archives and memorialisation practices, themes under-researched or absent in the research, writing, and teaching of history in Timor-Leste. We privilege themes which critique and go beyond official historical narratives, presenting works which bridge the absences in the historical knowledge, by bringing to the fore plural narratives interconnecting the local, national, regional and international dimensions of the history of Timor-Leste.

15. Estudos etnográficos de Ruy Cinatti em Timor

Vicente Paulino Programa de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa - Universidade Nacional Timor-Lorosa’e (PPGP-UNTL), TIMOR-LESTE; Centro de Estudos das Migrações e das Relações Interculturais - Universidade Aberta (CEMRI-UAb), PORTUGAL
Keu Apoema Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia (UFSB), BRASIL

Num momento em que se multiplicam em Timor-Leste iniciativas de valorização do património (i)material do país, o trabalho e o espólio de Ruy Cinatti, em grande parte não trabalhado nem publicado, pode ser entendido como um bem singular, com um interesse académico pelos contornos únicos que o autor assume no contexto dos trabalhos antropológicos em Timor português (Castelo, 2011; 2016), tanto no plano teórico quanto aplicado, com destaque para as suas metodologias de trabalho no terreno. De igual forma, este espólio tem igualmente um interesse cultural único para Timor-Leste independente, como uma herança de memórias e saberes, um importante reflexo e contributo, uma vez trabalhadas e apresentadas, para os estudos em curso pelos próprios timorenses, quer no plano académico (Paulino, 2013), quer no plano de uma política cultural de valorização do património (i)material nacional. Este painel pretende suscitar o debate em torno da figura, da vivência e do trabalho desenvolvido em Timor Português, assim como o seu espólio. Este painel é proposto no âmbito do projeto Ruy Cinatti: etnógrafo e poeta, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – P226421, https://ielt.fcsh.unl.pt/Projetos/ruy-cinatti/

16. Questões contemporâneas, mobilidade e identidade | Contemporary challenges, mobility and identity

As questões debatidas neste painel atravessam a contemporaneidade timorense nas suas redes transnacionais, enquadrando-se no tema geral do colóquio - a ilha e o mundo. As comunicações estão divididas em dois grupos. Um primeiro que abrange uma diversidade de assuntos relacionados a desafios recentes, como aqueles referidos à saúde pública e à política, à educação no exterior e à mobilidade de bens. Um segundo grupo busca debater redes nacionais e simbólicas mobilizadas tanto nas artes marciais como na formação de sentimentos de piedade fomentados pela circulação da Cruz Jovem e pelos valores da paz e da violência.

This panel discusses contemporary timorese life across transnational webs, addressing the general theme of the Colloquium – the island and the world. One group of papers addresses public health and political challenges put by recent national struggles. A second group of papers discusses how Timorese experiences of educational training in foreign countries contribute to national building, and how historical movements instigated by martial arts, by the “young cross” movement across the country and by experiences of peace and violence contribute to a profound and multilayered acknowledgment of regional diversity and unity.

Silvia Garcia Nogueira Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (UEPB), BRASIL
Susana de Matos Viegas Universidade de Lisboa (UL), PORTUGAL