Luha Oli aldeia, Venilale sub-district, Baucau district

The sub-district of Venilale is situated in the cool central highlands of Baucau district, approximately 50 kilometres south of the district capital. Located on the main road between the population centres of Baucau and Viqueque, the sub-district capital of Venilale is relatively well-serviced by transport services to both the north and south coasts. The main town area is marked by a number of buildings, such as the library, schools and also the church. The sub-district capital—Vila Venilale—houses the main market in the area, particularly for trade in agricultural products. Ground water resources in the region are relatively plentiful, leading to a high level of irrigated cropping. In addition to Tetun, three Austronesian languages—Waima’a, Midiki and Cai Rui—are commonly spoken, as well as Macassae.

Research by Globalism Institute staff commenced in July 2007 and has found that Venilale sub-district is marked by complex administrative and community boundary arrangements. For instance, three of Venilale’s eight sucos are split so that the one suco name is used to describe two separate areas of land (typically with one other suco splitting the two land areas). Further, while the research site—the aldeia Luha Oli—is part of the suco of Uai Laha, the households of the aldeia have gradually dispersed, carrying the aldeia name with them to new destinations. The effect, as we have found in other research sites such as Fatumean in Covalima, is that the mapped representation of an enclosed suco or aldeia does not represent how people are living their day-to-day lives.

Even while suco Uai Laha is a single territorial domain, its own history is representative of the changes that have taken place with regard to territory and local governance. Uai Laha is a relatively new administrative entity, only coming into being during the Indonesian era through the sub-division of neighbouring suco Uato Haco. Uai Laha people, however, attest to the suco’s prior existence in the form of a kingdom, long before it was recognized with administrative status. According to one version, Uai Laha had been ‘swallowed’ by an expansionist king from the neighbouring suco of Uato Haco, thus the creation of Uai Laha as an administrative unit was seen simply as the restoration of the ‘correct’ and legitimate territorial divisions.  



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