APSIG newsletter no. 61: July 2006

Voices of the forgotten: the East Timor living memory project

Anya Dettman of the National Library gave an illustrated talk on 29 March about a new project in Dili to record Timorese oral histories. Funded by the Southeast Asian Digital Library project at Northern Illinois University, the East Timor Living Memory project aims to gather testimonies from Timorese people imprisoned during the Indonesian occupation and largely forgotten, as the title of the talk suggests, in the post-independence period.

Anya and her partner Bob Legge learned of the project through the APSIG Newsletter and volunteered to work in Dili as librarian- archivists for six weeks earlier this year. Their talk was hosted by the very generous Asia Bookroom at their new premises in Lawry Place, Macquarie, ACT. An interested audience of academics and librarians attended.

Anya Dettman, Bob Legge and George Miller at the Asia Bookroom, 29 March 2006 - photo courtesy of ABR

The project is led by Jill Jolliffe, a well-known journalist and supporter of East Timor. Jill has written several books on East Timor and has devoted the past thirty years to their struggle. She was recently awarded Yale University's Journalist of the Year award for her outstanding work.

Anya gave a vivid description of the project's operations in Dili. Located in a private house, it is deliberately employing many survivors of the period of resistance. Although they cannot be paid much, they gladly contribute their time and effort to ensure that their story is not lost. To date forty five of a proposed 120 interviews have been recorded. Anya and Bob were tremendously impressed by the courage and fortitude of those being interviewed who had experienced torture, imprisonment and exile.

The interviewees speak in a variety of languages (Indonesian, Portuguese, Tetum and other dialects) which adds to the complexity of the task. The aim is to add edited versions of the testimonies to the Southeast Asian Digital Library website, which will be hosted by Northern Illinois University.



Marie Sexton