INDIGENOUS CONVERSATIONS (page 1 of 7) Next

Jose: My name is Jose da Costa. I'm an East Timorese asylum seeker who came to Australia in 1995, and am now a student at the Catholic University in Ballarat.

Sancho: My name is Sancho de Silva. I'm one of 1,500 East Timorese asylum seekers in Australia. I came to Australia in 1995, and now I study at Ballarat University. I'm doing a horticulture course.

Elizabette Lim Gomes: I'm Elizabete. I left East Timor when I was seven years old and went to Mozambique because my father was exiled to Mozambique by the Portuguese authorities. From Mozambique we went to Portugal and then from Portugal to Australia.

Charmaine: Yes, hello. My name is Charmaine Clarke. I'm a Gournditchmara woman from Western Victoria, an indigenous Australian, and also a member of the Stolen Generation. I came back to my family when I was about fourteen and since then have been fighting for indigenous rights in all aspects - stolen generation through to land rights and Melbourne is my home.

......................................................................................

Charmaine: Earlier, we talked about what cultural revival means to us, and how we can sustain our own culture. So we'll start with Elizabete because she ís a writer? She also experienced leaving East Timor before the invasion by Indonesia. Have you been able to keep your culture alive living in other countries?

Elizabete: I left East Timor a long time ago and the way I kept in touch with my culture was through having an interest, asking questions, listening to stories and making an effort to participate in the struggle for our own self-determination. I also did a lot of reading and listening to my elders telling stories; listening to news; getting involved in any way I could here. That ís how I kept in touch with the struggle and that ís how I found out about my own identity because most of my life we lived far away from other East Timorese. In Mozambique we were the only East Timorese family. In Portugal we were the only East Timorese family living in a village, too. Only here in Australia could I be in contact with other Timorese, and it was here in Australia that I became more and more involved in the struggle and find out about my own identity and my indigenous culture.

Charmaine: What about yourselves? You both lived in East Timor and only recently were able to escape. How was it for you to keep your culture alive in such adverse circumstances?

Sancho: It was very hard for our Timorese people to keep our identity or our culture because it was hard for us to learn. For example, at school we were taught Indonesian culture, Indonesia history and we were influenced by Indonesian culture. We never had any time to learn our own culture. Also, we were scared to learn because we were under invasion, under control of the Indonesians soldiers or the Indonesian military. Now I am here I am very, very happy to work and to see the people of Australia, including Elizabete, who still keep our identity and our struggle alive. Now that East Timor is free, I am very, very happy that the East Timorese here in Australia who left East Timor in the past 24 or 30 years ago have kept our struggle alive until now.

Next