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RMIT's East Timor Network
RMIT's East Timor Network is an effort to bring together a range of people who have an interest in and concern for East Timor into a loose collaborative network. It seeks to provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge and experiences on East Timor, to exchange information, and provide a space to explore various kinds of collaborations both within RMIT and across the community more generally. Undergraduate and postgraduate students, university administrators and academic staff, are welcome to become involved.
RMIT's Relationship with East Timor
Since 2000 staff and students at RMIT have sought to develop a framework
for how the University engages with East Timor. In 2002, a Memorandum
of Understanding was signed between RMIT and the Friends of Baucau,
a friendship relationship between the communities and councils of
the Cities of Darebin and Yarra in Victoria and the people of the
District of Baucau. During 2004 an East Timor Network (ETN) was developed
across RMIT. By developing a relationship between RMIT and Friends
of Baucau, it is hoped a series of different links can be established
between the RMIT and respective communities, helping to facilitate
training, scholarships, student and cultural exchanges. To develop
this process, ETN members have attended Friends of Baucau strategic
development meetings and an RMIT member attended the official opening
of the Friendship and Learning Centre in Baucau.
Memorandum of Understanding between RMIT and and the City of Darebin and the City of Yarra.
Friends of Baucau
In addition to this relationship, staff and students at RMIT engage with East Timorese individuals and organisations in a range of ways, and it is a hope of those involved in the East Timor Network that these relations will further develop in time.
For more information or to join the ETN events email list please contact chris.raab@rmit.edu.au
Public Seminars
In addition, the ETN is committed to working on a range of events that open up areas of discourse on subjects related to East Timor. RMIT staff and students, as well as community activists, aid workers and interested members of the public are all invited to make suggestions and to be involved in this aspect of the ETN's work.
Past Public Events
Human Rights, Development and National Reconstruction: Timor Leste’s Independence in a Global Context
In the last six years East Timor has moved from the tragedy of 24 years of Indonesian occupation to three years of United Nations mandated control, and then finally since 2002 to its own national independence. Drawing together speakers from East Timor and Australia, this panel discussion reflected on various aspects of East Timor's independence and considered the kind of nation that it is becoming. Linking themes of justice, human rights, and political economy in the current global context, the speakers expressed their views on a range of current debates around reconciliation and justice, the campaign for oil and gas resources, and the nature of the reconstruction effort in East Timor today.
The Globalism Institute was pleased to sponsor the visit to Australia by Joaquim da Fonseca who currently works as the Human Rights Liaison Officer for the Human Rights Treaty Reporting Team of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Timor-Leste. Prior to this Joaquim worked as the spokesperson and international campaign coordinator for Yayasan HAK, a Dili based organisation advocating for human rights and justice. Also speaking on the night was Vannessa Hearman who has worked as an interpreter for the United Nations Transitional Administration (UNTAET) and the Australian Electoral Commission in East Timor. She is an activist with Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and the Timor Sea Justice Campaign, and completed her MA at the University of Melbourne in 2004. Damian Grenfell was the final speaker, and is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Globalism Institute at RMIT University. His research focuses on conflict, nationalism and globalisation, with a special emphasis on Timor-Leste.
The three presentations were followed by an extremely lively and thorough debate.
Challenges and Possibilities: International Organisations and Women in East Timor
9-11 September, RMIT University, Melbourne
Full Web-based Report on the Forum
This year marks the third year of formal independence for East Timor and the sixth since the Indonesian withdrawal in 1999. Long-term reconstruction and development programs continue to operate in East Timor, many focusing on issues affecting women. In this context, ‘Challenges and Possibilities’ aimed to draw upon the experiences and ideas of participants, including East Timorese women and representatives of international organisations, in order to explore three key issues:
1. The practices and assumptions of international organisations working with East Timorese women;
2. How East Timorese women have responded; and
3. How the international presence has impacted on women in East Timor.
'Challenges and Possibilities' represented a unique opportunity for East Timorese members of civil society, representatives of international organisations, and interested Australians to collectively explore a critical, yet often sidelined, issue. The primary aim of the event was to create a forum for reflective dialogue, collaboration and critical self and peer review so as to make an open assessment regarding the impact of international organisations on the lives of women in East Timor. The approach to the weekend's events emphasised participation, open dialogue and collaboration in a safe, engaged environment. This was achieved through a combination of seminars, professionally facilitated workshops and less formal opportunities for social exchange.
For three days some 150 people came to Melbourne from around Australia and from East Timor to discuss these issues together; to share, to debate and to listen to one another’s experience. This report is an attempt to reflect some of the ideas shared at the forum. Put together by volunteers, not all aspects of the report have been able to be translated and we hope that it is seen as a document that can be further built upon in the future. Similarly, we hope that the forum is seen as one opportunity for discussion, and that open discourse between different individuals and organisations will continue on this theme in various ways and in various locations in the future.
Barriers to Women's Participation in East Timor's Reconstruction
25 October 2004
A tremendous amount has been achieved in the reconstruction of East Timor in the last five years. However, there is a concern that the position of women is not necessarily changing in a way that many may have hoped. Organised by East Timor Women Australia, Community and Regional Partnerships as well as the Globalism Institute, this seminar sought to highlight the various barriers that continue to obstruct a fuller participation for women in East Timorese society. Coming largely from an international perspective, the seminar addressed the framework for discourse on women in East Timor. How have East Timorese Women been approached by a range of international development, aid, policing and human-rights advocates and workers? Have the assumptions carried by international participants in East Timor's reconstruction been appropriate, what mistakes have been made, and what successful strategies have been adopted in the effort to address the concerns as indicated by women in East Timor? Following an introduction by Etervina Groenen was the keynote address by Jacqui Siapno who presented a paper on 'Creating New Spaces, Shattering Silences: Class, Race, Ethnic, Linguistic, and Paradigmatic Questions besides the Gender Barriers'. She argued that there is a tendency to portray East Timorese women either as 'powerless victims' or as 'revolutionary heroes'. She discussed a tendency to refer to all East Timorese women as a monolithic grouping, without specific attention to radical differences in formation, in terms of class background, race, ethnic and linguistic formations. This was followed by four shorter presentations from Sara Niner, Janet Hunt, Jen Worthington and Deb Salvagno, who each shared their ideas and experiences on women's participation in East Timor. This in turn was followed by a facilitated workshop by Virginia Gough that highlighted various key ideas and arguments related to the nights themes.
East Timor: Possible Futures in a Globalising World
20 May 2004
As East Timor enters its third year of independence, the new nation finds itself facing an uncertain future. East Timor continues to face the very significant legacies of its colonial past, found with high levels of poverty, unemployment and social trauma, and as a country is yet to secure certainty over its territorial borders. As the international community winds down its presence in the formerly Indonesian occupied territory, it would appear that the need for building strong and meaningful relationships with the new republic is as important as ever.
In a discussion of the 'possible futures' East Timor faces, a panel of speakers presented a range of shorter and longer presentations in RMIT's Storey Hall on 20 April. This event was co-ordinated by RMIT's Community and Regional Partnerships and the Globalism Institute to inaugurate a University-based East Timor Network , giving a public face to the work that has been undertaken by university staff on East Timor in previous years. The first to present was Kevin Breen from the City of Darebin and Yarra. Representing Friends of Baucau, Kevin spoke of how the organisation had been able to establish an educational facility and how plans for the centre were developing. The second speaker was Janet Hunt from RMIT's School of Social Science. Janet spoke about the development of NGOs in East Timor 'from inclusion to exclusion', tracing the ways in which groups that grew during the years of occupation have become an important part of the new nation's political landscape. Next was Damian Grenfell from RMIT's Globalism Institute who discussed the coffee industry in East Timor and the longer-term concerns over food sovereignty and export-driven market policies. Lastly, Dan Nicholson from the Timor Sea Justice Campaign updated the audience on the current state of negotiations between the Australian and East Timorese governments. Engaging questions and general debate followed each paper.
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