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From Timor Leste to Australia: Seven families, three generations tell their stories
Stories from a remarkable, courageous, and resilient people, who endured so much, just on our doorstep.
A collection of poignant stories and poems of seven East Timorese families living in Melbourne’s City of Casey whose experiences belong to that long history of human tragedy created where violent conflict of power, land and resources takes place, inevitably visiting on ordinary people, disruption and loss.
A collection of poignant stories and poems of seven East Timorese families living in Melbourne’s City of Casey whose experiences belong to that long history of human tragedy created where violent conflict of power, land and resources takes place, inevitably visiting on ordinary people, disruption and loss.
226 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2018
This book consists of aspects of the life stories of members of seven East Timorese families who settled in Melbourne's southeast, the local municipality of Casey composed of suburbs like Dandenong, Endeavour Hills and surroundings. United by places of residence and birth, the collection, as a result, does not aim to be representative of Timor-Leste's population - for example, no East Timorese of Chinese ethnicity is represented in the collection. Through this collection, however, we get a sense of the links between a majority of the East Timorese in the book with the erstwhile colonial ruler, Portugal, links which continued after the Indonesian invasion of 1975. This book represents mostly the experiences of those East Timorese who were literate, Portuguese-educated and influenced and employed by the colonial administration. From sections of this book, we gain an insight into the making of the older generation of elites in Timor-Leste today. Similarly, the characteristics and perceptions of a section of the East Timorese diaspora in Australia, such as on their relationship to Australia and Timor-Leste, can also be found in this book.
In terms of methodology, interviews were conducted by high school students from Gleneagles Secondary College which were then written up as the chapters that comprise this book. The results are quite good, with some creative treatments of the life stories, such as students turning the material into poetry (though this did not appeal to me as a reader and was jarring given the way the other interviews were written up). Editing and proofreading could have been improved. Spelling of place names in Timor-Leste and surnames and the low usage of Portuguese diacritics could have been addressed before publication. The erroneous equation of Indonesian West Timor with Irian Jaya (West Papua) was a rather serious error. Nonetheless, overall, it is valuable to have this collection to add to the literature on post-independent Timor-Leste. Its multi-generational and multi-country approach is unique, in that by taking such an approach, the volume links individual motivations, decisions and choices to their impact on subsequent generations.
In terms of methodology, interviews were conducted by high school students from Gleneagles Secondary College which were then written up as the chapters that comprise this book. The results are quite good, with some creative treatments of the life stories, such as students turning the material into poetry (though this did not appeal to me as a reader and was jarring given the way the other interviews were written up). Editing and proofreading could have been improved. Spelling of place names in Timor-Leste and surnames and the low usage of Portuguese diacritics could have been addressed before publication. The erroneous equation of Indonesian West Timor with Irian Jaya (West Papua) was a rather serious error. Nonetheless, overall, it is valuable to have this collection to add to the literature on post-independent Timor-Leste. Its multi-generational and multi-country approach is unique, in that by taking such an approach, the volume links individual motivations, decisions and choices to their impact on subsequent generations.
July 29, 2025
A powerful collection of stories on Timor-Leste’s complex history. Whilst these insights were well written and so important to read (especially for Aussies), the repetition of similar tragedies unfortunately created a sense of monotony and left me a bit emotionally fatigued...
April 10, 2022
Like many countries I’ve read about in my Read the World Project, Timor-Leste is one that I didn’t know anything about so From Timor-Leste to Australia was a real eye-opening and informative read. For each of the seven families there’s at least two people telling their story; sometimes their siblings, or more commonly it’s a parent and then a child. That way the reader can see how these huge events affected different generations as sometime the children were ten years old or younger when they were forced to flee their homes and move to countries far from home so for some it seemed like an adventure and the realities on their situation was lost on them.
Having members of seven different families share their experience is a good way to get a broad idea of what happened to the Timorese people. Some families were wealthier or had connections to the government while others were poor and had little support, but often they all ended up in similar situations, running from their homes and uncertain of what the future held. Those who stayed in Timor-Leste throughout the Indonesian invasion naturally had different experiences to those who managed to get to other countries. So many people still wanted to get back to their home country though, and how some of these people described what they feel is their nationality was interesting. Some now are Australian residents but feel more Portuguese because they spent their formative years there, others feel Timorese first and foremost but still feel at home in Australia or Portugal.
It was interesting to see how these families got displaced with some being separated by loved ones for years and how they adapted to their new countries. One family was in Mozambique for a time as that was also a former Portuguese colony before the revolution there forced them to flee to Portugal. A lot of the families ended up in Portugal for years, sometimes over a decade or more. This was because Timor-Leste was a form Portuguese colony and some of the families had Portuguese parents or grandparents so had connections in the country that could vouch for them. Others ended up there as it was where was deemed to be safest, living in refugee camps for years.
By the end of each of the families’ stories, most of them had ended up settled in Australia, where communities of Timorese people had begun to thrive. This was due to the Australians fighting against the Japanese in WWII and Timorese people would often hide and protect Australian soldiers when the country was occupied by the Japanese.
From Timor-Leste to Australia was quite a sad read at times as so many people in these families were imprisoned, killed, or separated from loved ones for years. People wen through such hardships and nearly every time it seemed like things would get better for the Timorese, something else would happen. The relief and joy when the people of Timor-Leste successfully voted for their country’s independence was palpable in every family member’s recollection. But the resilience of these people and how families managed to stay connected even across oceans was impressive – especially as lot of this happened from around 1942-1999, a time where phones and technology to keep in touch were not how it is today.
Having members of seven different families share their experience is a good way to get a broad idea of what happened to the Timorese people. Some families were wealthier or had connections to the government while others were poor and had little support, but often they all ended up in similar situations, running from their homes and uncertain of what the future held. Those who stayed in Timor-Leste throughout the Indonesian invasion naturally had different experiences to those who managed to get to other countries. So many people still wanted to get back to their home country though, and how some of these people described what they feel is their nationality was interesting. Some now are Australian residents but feel more Portuguese because they spent their formative years there, others feel Timorese first and foremost but still feel at home in Australia or Portugal.
It was interesting to see how these families got displaced with some being separated by loved ones for years and how they adapted to their new countries. One family was in Mozambique for a time as that was also a former Portuguese colony before the revolution there forced them to flee to Portugal. A lot of the families ended up in Portugal for years, sometimes over a decade or more. This was because Timor-Leste was a form Portuguese colony and some of the families had Portuguese parents or grandparents so had connections in the country that could vouch for them. Others ended up there as it was where was deemed to be safest, living in refugee camps for years.
By the end of each of the families’ stories, most of them had ended up settled in Australia, where communities of Timorese people had begun to thrive. This was due to the Australians fighting against the Japanese in WWII and Timorese people would often hide and protect Australian soldiers when the country was occupied by the Japanese.
From Timor-Leste to Australia was quite a sad read at times as so many people in these families were imprisoned, killed, or separated from loved ones for years. People wen through such hardships and nearly every time it seemed like things would get better for the Timorese, something else would happen. The relief and joy when the people of Timor-Leste successfully voted for their country’s independence was palpable in every family member’s recollection. But the resilience of these people and how families managed to stay connected even across oceans was impressive – especially as lot of this happened from around 1942-1999, a time where phones and technology to keep in touch were not how it is today.
March 11, 2020
I enjoyed this book because it gave great personal insights into the struggles of the people from Timor Leste. I am an Australian but only had a very rudimentary knowledge of the history of one of Australia's nearest neighbors. Reading the personal accounts of these brave people is better than reading a reference book because they were there at the time. I was glad that Australia helped the East Timorese in the 1990s because our government early on made some pretty poor decisions to appease the Indonesians.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews