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Current and Recent Projects | Past Projects | Our Publications
Current and Recent Projects
Nation-Building Across Urban and Rural Timor-Leste
Nation-Building Across Urban and Rural Timor-Leste: Gender, Justice, Peace and Security, Development and Governance
A Conference to Reflect on 10 Years of Nation-Building in Timor-Leste
Dili, Timor-Leste
Dates: 8-10 July 2009
Organizers: Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University
NGO Forum Timor-Leste
Australian Volunteers International (AVI)
Charles Darwin University
Supporters: Caritas Australia Timor-Leste
AusAID
Asia Pacific Futures Research Network
Airnorth
Publications: Recommendations from Conference Participants in English and Tetun
Bilingual conference proceedings to come
This conference provided an opportunity for East Timorese and people from around the world to reflect, discuss and debate the nation-building process in Timor-Leste since 1999. In this context, nation-building in Timor-Leste is taken to mean the many different attempts since 1999 to ensure the political, economic and cultural integration of the population within the territory so as to fulfil the ambition of self rule in a stable and ongoing way.
Ten years after the 1999 vote for independence, this conference considered how nation-building is being experienced and responded to across urban and rural communities in Timor-Leste. Broadening the discussion beyond that of ‘state-building’, at the core of the conference was a consideration of the myriad ways the new republic has been ‘built’. Here ‘nation-building’ considers not only in terms of policy and programmatic initiatives but also grass roots experiences and perceptions of how Timor-Leste as a nation is seen and understood.
At this conference, nation-building was discussed in terms of what appears to be one of the most significant characteristics of contemporary Timor-Leste, namely the sharp distinction found between the urbanised capital and the rural communities where the majority of the population live. Dili has emerged as the centre for economic and political power in a way that is extraordinarily disproportionate with the remainder of the country, while rural areas often remain highly isolated and continue to be dominated by subsistence agriculture. Differences in access to services— running water and electricity, communication networks, adequate roads and transport, schooling and health—are among the more obvious differences alongside a lack of access to paid work or opportunities for business development. The distinction between the ‘centre’ and the ‘periphery’ is found in everyday discourse in Timor-Leste, where it is the norm for people to speak in oppositional terms about ‘Dili’ and the ‘foho’ (literally meaning mountain but used to refer to non-urban communities).
While acknowledging the sharp distinctions, the conference looked beyond assuming a straight forward urban/rural disconnect. Nor did it seek to understand this relationship simply from the ‘centre’. Firstly, this conference explored how rural communities have actively responded to the challenges of nation-building on their own terms. Secondly, the conference attempted to consider the ways in which the urban and the rural in Timor-Leste interconnect with one another, not just in terms of the movement of people or economic interaction, but also in terms of how national identity and culture is understood and projected.
Governance and Justice
Community Perceptions of Governance Structures and Justice Processes
Timeframe: 2008-ongoing
Researchers:
Dr Damian Grenfell
Carmenesa Moniz Noronha
Victoria Stead
Anna Trembath
Research Sites: Sub-district Venilale, Baucau district
Sub-district Fatumean, Covalima district
Sub-district Luro, Lautem district
Sub-district Dom Aleixo, Dili district
Sub-district Balibo, Bobonaro district
Funding: Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University
This project is concerned with how East Timorese communities view, understand and utilise or engage with governance structures and justice and conflict resolution processes in Timor-Leste, both customary and modern-bureaucratic. We disseminated two individual surveys in five sub-districts across Timor-Leste (see above). The research team worked in a variety of languages, including Tetun, Indonesian and local languages.
Community Security and Sustainability
Community Security and Sustainability
Timeframe: July 2007-July 2009
Researchers:
Dr Damian Grenfell
Mayra Walsh
Carmenesa Moniz Noronha
Anna Trembath
Kym Holthouse
Research Sites: Aldeia Luha Oli, sub-district Venilale, Baucau district
Aldeia Nanu, sub-district Fatumean, Covalima district
Aldeia Sarelari, sub-district Luro, Lautem district
Aldeia Golgota, sub-district Dom Aleixo, Dili district
Funding: Irish Aid Timor-Leste
Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University
Global Cities Institute, RMIT University
Oxfam Australia
Concern Worldwide
Publications: Final Four-Site Report in English (Report and Cover) and Tetun (Report and Cover) (July 2009)
Initial Two-Site Report in English (Report and Cover) (August 2008)
This project was framed by a concern for how communities in Timor-Leste are able to maintain security and sustainability. The concept of 'community security' allows for a consideration of both direct threats, such as social conflict, violence and property destruction, as well as the ability to achieve those things that might be understood to enable a good life, such as access to adequate shelter, food, health, education and cultural expression. 'Community sustainability', a framework used by the Globalism Research Centre in our research across the globe, refers to the ways in which communities hold themselves together in a durable and coherent form over a period of time, even in the face of substantial challenges and under periods of intense change.
Our research attempted to illuminate contemporary conditions and patterns of social life in Timor-Leste by focusing particularly on one of the most localized forms of community, namely the aldeia, rather than on the nation-state. Despite nation formation and national identity, localized forms of community remain extremely important in Timor-Leste. In terms of work, family, mobility and levels of identity, it is more localized forms of community that provide both the primary material and cultural basis of social life for a very large number of people. Analysis at this level also allows for another way to understand the national conditions of Timor-Leste, if such communities are taken as fairly representative of local communities across the nation.
Our research was undertaken in four sites across Timor-Leste: aldeia Luha Oli (sub-district Venilale, Baucau), aldeia Nanu (sub-district Fatumean, Covalima), aldeia Sarelari (sub-district Luro, Lautem), and aldeia Golgota (sub-district Dom Aleixo, Dili).
With this project we generated a broad empirical foundation, one of use to communities, governments and other institutions in assessing policy directions. It will help to develop durable links between communities and researchers, government agencies and NGOs, providing information for communities themselves in enacting their own sustainability goals. And it will challenge some of the current theoretical trends that reduce community either to a form of social capital or to a residual concern in the putatively more important task of enhancing economic development.
Methods used included various individual and household surveys, semi-structured interviews, photo-narrative, and temporal, spatial and family mapping techniques. Project staff worked across various languages, including Tetun, Bahasa Indonesia and local languages.
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Past Projects
After the Violence?
After the Violence? Truth, Reconciliation and National Integration in Timor-Leste
An Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant
Timeframe: 2007-2008
Chief Investigator:
Dr Damian Grenfell
Research Team:
Mayra Walsh and Victoria Stead
Publications:
Various; see Publications below
With the closure of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) and the dissemination of its findings across 2006, this project examined the impact of CAVR on national integration. By focusing particularly on how CAVR sought to find 'the truth' regarding political violence that had occurred between 1974 and 1999, as well as to secure the reintegration of past human-rights offenders back into society, the central role of the Commission in underpinning the transition to a new nation was considered. The project asked whether the cycles of violence have been genuinely broken in Timor-Leste in relation to that period and how organizations such as CAVR contribute to building a durable peace in post-conflict societies. While the project focused on CAVR, the socio-political crises that began in 2006 and the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2007 were drawn into the study so as to help answer the underpinning questions of the project that relate to the nature of nation-formation in a post-conflict Timor-Leste.
CAVR
Support for the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR)
Timeframe: 2004-2006
Researchers:
Dr Damian Grenfell and Professor Paul James
Across 2004 and 2005, members of the Globalism Research Centre worked with the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), providing editorial and research advice with regard to the Commission's final report.
On 14 November 2006 the Globalism Research Centre with the support of the Jesuit Mission, the Mary Mackillop Institute East Timor and the University of Melbourne Human Rights Forum hosted the Melbourne launch of Chega, CAVR's public report. See here for further details.
Pathways to Reconciliation and Global Human Rights
Pathways to Reconciliation and Global Human Rights: Sarajevo 2005
An International Conference in Bosnia Herzegovina
16-19 August 2005
With the support of the British Embassy in Dili, former CAVR National Commissioner Isabel Guterres was able to attend the Pathways to Reconciliation and Global Human Rights Conference in Sarajevo. The conference was organised by the Globalism Research Centre and supported by the United Nations Development Fund.
To hear Isabel Guterres' keynote address click here.
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Our Publications and Research Outputs
. Grenfell, Damian, 'Governance, Violence and Crises in Timor-Leste: Estadu Seidauk Mai', in David Mearns, ed., Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, 2008.
. Grenfell, Damian, Mayra Walsh, Anna Trembath, Carmenesa Moniz Noronha and Kym Holthouse, Understanding Community: Security and Sustainability in Four Aldeia in Timor-Leste (Report and Cover), The Globalism Research Centre, Melbourne, 2009 (Also available in Tetun - Report and Cover).
. Grenfell, Damian, Mayra Walsh, Carmenesa Moniz Noronha, Kym Holthouse and Anna Trembath, Community Sustainability and Security in Timor-Leste: Sarelari and Nanu, The Globalism Research Centre, Melbourne, 2008.
. Grenfell, Damian and Paul James, eds, Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence: Beyond Savage Globalization?, Routledge, London, 2008.
. Grenfell, Damian, 'Reconciliation: Violence and Nation-Formation in Timor-Leste', in Damian Grenfell and Paul James, eds, Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence: Beyond Savage Globalization?, Routledge, London, 2008.
. Grenfell, Damian, 'Truth, Reconciliation and Nation Formation in "Our Land" of Timor Leste', in Phillipa Rothfield, Cleo Fleming and Paul Komesaroff, eds, Pathways to Reconciliation: Between Theory and Practice, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008.
. Grenfell, Damian, 'The Violence of Nation-Formation in Timor-Leste', presentation to Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National Conference, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia, 7 February 2008.
. James, Paul, 'Reconciliation: From the Usually Spoken to the Almost Unimaginable', in Phillipa Rothfield, Cleo Fleming and Paul Komesaroff, eds, Pathways to Reconciliation: Between Theory and Practice, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008.
. James, Paul, 'Truth and Reconciliation in Times of Tension: Are there Pathways to a Different World?', address to Ben Gurion University, Beersheba, Israel, 14 December 2008.
. 'Recommendations from the "Nation-Building Across Urban and Rural Timor-Leste" Conference', Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, 2009. (Also available in Tetun)
. Trembath, Anna, 'Gender and Security in Timor-Leste', Presentation to Globalism Institute Seminar Series 2006, RMIT University, Melbourne, 24 May 2006.
. Trembath, Anna, 'Gender Dynamics in Timor-Leste's Security Crisis', Presentation to Second Oceanic Conference on International Studies, Melbourne University, Melbourne, 7 July 2006.
. Trembath, Anna, 'Rethinking Gender, Security and Peace Intersections in Timor-Leste', Presentation to Understanding Timor-Leste: A Research Conference, Timor-Leste Studies Association, Dili, 3 July 2009.
. Trembath, Anna, 'Review of Independent Women: the Story of Women's Activism in East Timor', International Journal of Feminist Politics, vol. 10, no. 2, 2008, pp. 271-73.
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