Helen will be remembered for many things, but above all for her 50 years of dedication to friendship with the people of Timor-Leste and solidarity in their struggle for independence.

At the funeral, Steve Bracks, chancellor of Victoria University and former premier of Victoria, also paid tribute to Helen’s lifetime commitment to social justice and to the independence and flourishing of Timor-Leste in particular.

Further testimonies were presented by Jean McLean (formerly a member of the Victorian Legislative Council), the Australia-East Timor Association, representatives of local Timorese groups and Helen’s family. Helen’s long-time friend, the Reverend Barbara Gayler, preached on the theme of solidarity.

Helen was born on 22 February 1945, the eldest of four children of Robert Hill and Jessie Scovell. Her sister Alison predeceased her, and she is survived by her sister Margaret and her brother Ian and their children and grandchildren.

Her father fought with the Australian army in New Guinea before working for the Commonwealth Bank and becoming a branch manager. Her mother was a social worker at the repatriation hospital.

The family were members of the Presbyterian Church in Blackburn, which fostered an attitude of caring for others.

Studied political science
Helen’s secondary schooling was at Presbyterian Ladies College, where she enjoyed communal activities such as choir. She began a science course at the University of Melbourne but transferred to Monash University to study sociology and political science, graduating with a BA (Hons) in 1970.

At Monash, Helen was an enthusiastic member of the Labor Club and the Student Christian Movement (SCM), where issues of social justice were regularly debated.

Opposition to the war in Vietnam was the main focus of concern during her time at Monash. In 1970, Helen was a member of the organising committee for the first moratorium demonstration in Melbourne and also a member of the executive committee of the Australian SCM (ASCM, the national body) which was based in Melbourne.

She edited Political Concern, an alternative information service, for ASCM. In 1971, Helen was a founding member of International Development Action. Helen was a great networker, always ready to see what she could learn from others.

Perhaps the most formative moment in Helen’s career was her appointment as a frontier intern, to work on the Southern Africa section of the Europe/Africa Project of the World Student Christian Federation, based in London (1971-1973). This project aimed to document how colonial powers had exploited the resources of their colonies, as well as the impact of apartheid in South Africa.

In those years, she also studied at the Institute d’Action Culturelle in Geneva, which was established by Paulo Freire, arguably her most significant teacher. The insights and contacts from this time of engagement with global issues of justice and education provided a strong foundation for Helen’s subsequent career.

In 1974, Helen embarked on a Master of Arts course supervised by the late Professor Herb Feith. Helen had met student leaders from the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola in the Europe/Africa project, who asked her about East Timor (“so close to Australia”).

East Timor thesis topic
Recognising that she, along with most Australians, knew very little about East Timor, Helen proposed East Timor as the focus of her master’s thesis. She began to learn Portuguese for this purpose.

Following the overthrow of the authoritarian regime in Portugal in April 1974 and the consequent opportunities for independence in the Portuguese colonies, she visited East Timor for three months in early 1975, where she was impressed by the programme and leadership of Fretilin, the main independence party.

Her plans were thwarted by the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in December 1975, and she was unable to revisit East Timor until after the achievement of independence in 2000. Her 1978 Master of Arts thesis included an account of the Fretilin plans rather than the Fretilin achievements.

Her 1976 book, The Timor Story, was a significant document of the desire of East Timorese people for independence and influenced the keeping of East Timor on the UN decolonisation list. She was a co-founder of the Australia-East Timor Association, which was founded in the initial days of the Indonesian invasion.

Helen was a founding member of the organisation Campaign Against Racial Exploitation in 1975. She was prolific in writing and speaking for these causes, not simply as an advocate, but also as a capable analyst of many situations of decolonisation. She was published regularly in Nation Review and also appeared in many other publications concerned with international affairs and development.

Helen was awarded a rare diploma of education (tertiary education method) from the University of Melbourne in 1980. From 1980 to 1983, she was a full-time doctoral student at Australian National University, culminating in a thesis about non-formal education and development in Fiji, New Caledonia and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (the islands of the north Pacific).

Helen participated in significant international conferences on education and development in these years and was involved in occasional teaching in the nations and territories of her thesis.

Teaching development studies
In 1991, she was appointed lecturer at Victoria University to teach development studies, which, among other things, attracted a steady stream of students from Timor-Leste. In 2000, she was able to return to Timor-Leste as part of her work for Victoria University.

An immediate fruit of her work in 2001 was a memorandum of understanding between Victoria University and the Dili Institute of Technology, followed in 2005 with another between Victoria University and the National University of Timor-Leste.

One outcome of this latter relationship has been biennial conferences on development, held in Dili. Also in 2005, she was a co-founder of the Timor-Leste Studies Association.

Helen stood for quality education and for high academic standards that can empower all students. In 2014, Helen was honoured by the government of Timor-Leste with the award of the Order of Timor-Leste (OT-L).

Retiring from Victoria University in 2014, Helen chose to live in Timor-Leste, while returning to Melbourne regularly. She continued to teach in Dili and was employed by the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education in 2014 and from 2018 until her death.

Helen came to Melbourne in late 2023, planning to return to Timor-Leste early in 2024, where further work awaited her.

A routine medical check-up unexpectedly found significant but symptom-free cancer, which developed rapidly, though it did not prevent her from attending public events days before her death on May 7. Friends and family are fulsome in their praise of Helen’s brother Ian, who took time off work to give her daily care during her last weeks.

Helen had a distinguished academic career, with significant teaching and research focusing on the links between development and education, particularly in the Pacific context, though with a fully global perspective.

Helen had an ever-expanding network of contacts and friends around the world, on whom she relied for critical enlightenment on issues of concern.

From Blackburn to Dili, inspired by sharp intelligence, compassion, Christian faith and a careful reading of the signs of the times, Helen lived by a vision of the common good and strove mightily to build a world of peace and justice.

Sandy Yule was general secretary of the Australian Student Christian Movement from 1970-75, where he first met Helen Hill, and is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. He wrote this tribute with help from Helen Hill’s family and friends. It was first published by The Age newspaper and is republished from the DevPolicy Blog at Australian National University.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Xanana Gusmao’s recent contrived jovial participation in the birthday celebrations of “self-professed” paedophile and defrocked foreign priest Richard Daschbach has shocked many of his supporters, not least his Australian former wife and three Timorese-Australian sons who have publicly condemned the visit and written apologetic letters to the young women who were due to give evidence against Daschbach in court this week.

At the very well-publicised “birthday party” held in the home of a diehard Catholic supporter, Gusmao embraced and hand-fed Daschbach birthday cake, and tipped champagne into his mouth.

The visit has been interpreted as a heavy-handed attempt to whitewash Daschbach’s ruined reputation just before the court case commenced, and intimidate the prosecution, and the young witnesses who are in hiding due to just this sort of pressure.

In blatantly favouring the reputation of an ex-priest over the safety and wellbeing of his alleged victims, these male elites demonstrate a fundamental element of patriarchy defined as: “… a set of social relations between men, which have a material base, and which, through hierarchy, establish or create interdependence and solidarity among men that enable them to dominate women”. (Hartmann, 1979, p11).

Why would Gusmao bother?
It can be explained by long-term patriarchal relationships between particular conservative priests and resistance leaders such as Gusmao, and the almighty political, social and spiritual power of the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste to co-opt political leaders.

Gusmao’s visit is said to have been to honour the ex-priest’s role in the struggle for independence. Yet it also has to do with the low status and lack of power of poor young females, orphans with no one to protect them, and the phenomenal combined power of the clergy and the heroes of the resistance – when these patriarchal forces come together in Timor, very few can contest their will.

Yet some are speaking – and have spoken out – including Gusmao’s Australian sons; more progressive clergy; journalists and their professional association; lawyers representing the victims and others from the legal community; the women’s organisations protecting the alleged victims; and ordinary citizens expressing horror on social media, where the topic has been discussed.

This list will continue to grow. These are the new progressive forces in Timor-Leste contesting the power of the old patriarchal forces.

Daschbach has openly confessed more than once to the crimes, and was expelled from the priesthood and Catholic Church after an investigation in 2018. Since then, the justice system in Timor has struggled with prosecuting the case due to the interference of local religious supporters of the ex-priest, and a lack of appetite for arresting and imprisoning a priest.

While the problem is a global one and not well dealt with anywhere, to understand why this has happened in Timor, some appreciation for the particularities of the Catholic Church there is required.

As a Catholic country, with more than 90 percent adherence, the church wields enormous social, political and spiritual power, and priests are revered as God on earth. Daschbach was treated as a “demigod” with “magical abilities” and a “direct line to Christ”.

People still bow down or kneel and kiss the ring of priests to greet them. Others are simply too afraid to speak out for fear of excommunication, and the social, political and spiritual implications of this for themselves and their families.

Due to the Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste remains “wedded to ideas of hierarchy and obedience” largely unaffected by liberal changes introduced by the second Vatican Council.

The deeply conservative church provides the moral and spiritual underpinning of an unequal gender regime. This leads to the significant conservative impact of religious discourses on gender roles and relationships, sex, reproduction, and homosexuality.

A woman activist explains that Catholic priests will not accept “modern” ideas about gender equality, or address sexual abuse and violence: “… they are more inclined to men’s perspectives and […] the patriarchal mentality“.

The church’s religious doctrines heavily influence government policy, leading to a lack of sex education in schools and reproductive healthcare, including the use of condoms as a protective measure to avoid pregnancy and disease, resulting in many avoidable deaths.

The inner circle: The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
While the Bishop of Dili has urged all Catholics to respect the Vatican’s decision to expel Daschbach, there’s a hardcore group within the church, led by lawyers from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, who have led his campaign of support.

Commission members even visited the orphanage where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, and spoke to potential victims and witnesses, as well as parents, police, and lawyers.

In a report, they accuse the Timorese judicial and police authorities and organisations that have supported victims of being a “justice-mafia” and, perversely, of “collective sexual abuse” (for conducting medical examinations), “exploitation of underage girls”, and “human trafficking” (for moving them to a safe house).

By disclosing the names of alleged victims, witnesses, and the suspect himself, one local lawyer says they have broken the law. The Archbishop swiftly sacked the president of the commission.

The gender challenge
Gender relations apparent in contemporary Timorese society are the result of complex political and historical circumstances.

The dominance of men in Timorese history and politics, and the legacy of militarisation and conflict with neighbouring Indonesia during the national struggle for independence (1974-1999) are significant issues in contemporary Timorese society that pose enormous challenges for the nation.

As in most post-conflict societies, the effects of militarisation on society have not been adequately dealt with. I have argued that it was this that led to internal violence among the male political leadership resulting in a national crisis in 2006, and shattering of national reconstruction and development.

A tough and brutalised masculinity has significant damaging effects for the young men who try to live up to it, but also others such as the LGBTI community who face persecution and discrimination.

The negative influence of the Catholic Church on attitudes to homosexuality highlights the crucial work needed to combat the solid wall of intolerance built by conservative forces.

A recent secret research report found that young women have a lack of knowledge, choice, and agency in first sexual experiences leading to sexual abuse. Young women were often unaware that their consent was even required for sex.

In another study, between 20 to 30 percent of men admitted to rape, and in another acceptance of public sexual harassment and forced sex was clear. This may be linked to even higher levels of sexual abuse experienced by men. A shocking 42 percent of the men surveyed in 2016 reported being sexually abused before the age 18.

More powerful men
While research data does not yet exist on perpetrators of male victims, it seems likely that more powerful boys or men from within their own families, communities, clubs, schools and churches were the perpetrators.

The patriarchal hierarchies of power within institutional settings must be challenged if vulnerable people, including women and children, are to be protected – and not just in Timorese society.

There is no disputing that Gusmao completed a Herculean task in leading the East Timorese people to independence, and his resolute leadership and bravery will never – nor should ever – be forgotten.

Yet his reputation is being tarnished by such allegiances to the old authoritarian patriarchal order that he once fought against as a young man. Culture is dynamic, and both internal and external progressive forces signal change in Timor-Leste.

Newer progressive forces in Timor contesting older hierarchies of power are in need of support and international solidarity, and supporters of Timor-Leste, and Gusmao in particular, in Australia and other places need to take note.

There are Timorese men working and advocating for an end to violence against women, alongside Timor’s tenacious women’s movement that has worked so hard in this space, but more political leadership on gendered violence is required by the state.

Timor Leste’s extremely youthful population represents a great opportunity for positive change and renewal.

Dr Sara Niner is a lecturer in anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Monash University. This article is republished from Lens Monash under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

ANALYSIS: By David Robie

Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups?

They were supposed to be seeing for themselves the reality on the ground. But apart from a trickle of carefully managed visits by selected journalists after the grand announcement – including two multimedia crews from RNZ Pacific and Māori Television in 2015 – no change really happened.

And the serious media freedom and human rights violations remain rampant.

READ MORE: The internet shut down in Papua threatens Indonesia’s democracy

Even the Pacific Islands Forum countries are still awaiting their promised fact-finding mission.

Instead, Jakarta has launched in recent years a major diplomatic offensive in the region through aid and efforts to win Pacific “hearts and minds” as demonstrated by last month’s “Pacific” Expo hosted in Auckland’s Sky City.

The futility of Jakarta’s hard line approach has been exposed for the world to see this week with the masses of protests across the two easternmost Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua in response to a racist attack in Surabaya.

The more repressively Jakarta has acted towards Papuans, the more the resilience of a colonised people after five decades of repression has bounced back.

Wisdom questioned
Despite blocking the internet and sending in 1000 troops, Jakarta is unable to push the independence and self-determination genie back into the bottle.

Increasingly, Indonesian community leaders and civil rights advocates elsewhere in the republic are questioning the wisdom of clinging stubbornly to the unitarian nation stance in relation to Papuan self-determination. A more relaxed, compassionate and nuanced approach needs to be taken towards the Papuans, one that recognises the determination and courageous aspirations of the Melanesian people.

The editorial board of the English-language Jakarta Post, calling for a refreshed policy of respect and dignity, admitted this week “something, if not many things has gone wrong with the way we deal with Papua”.

Why even criminalise the flying of the symbolic Morning Star flag, asks coordinator Yati Andriani of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) about persistent acts of defiance by Papuans who risk up to 15 years in jail for doing this.

She thinks that President Widodo should follow the precedent set by the country’s fourth president, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, who was far more lenient and accommodating with Papuan aspirations during his term of office in 1999-2001 (he died eight years later).

“Even if the Morning Star flag is flown and it doesn’t do any harm, doesn’t use violence, then it shouldn’t be treated as a criminal act, or criminal in any way,” Andriana says, according to Pikiran Rakyat.

“I think Jokowi should learn from Gus Dur, who allowed the Morning Star flag to be flown.”

Time to listen
It is time for the central government in Jakarta to start “listening” to the Papuan people, she believes.

“This is a Jakarta perspective about nationalism – the NKRI [Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia] being non-negotiable, but they close their eyes to what the people want,” she explains.

Andriani also deplores the statement by President Widodo calling on the Papuan people and students to forgive he attackers who “besieged” the Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya last week, an event that triggered the rioting and protests in Manokwari, Sorong and Jayapura and many other places.

Instead, Andriani thinks that Jokowi should apologise to the Papuan people.

“Before this incident, there have been many cases of prohibitions and restrictions on political, economic, social and cultural rights, which the Papuan people are not granted.

“This all points to an important thing, the complex issues in Papua, so the president’s approach of just stating that we should all forgive each other, is a statement that is inadequate to respond to the problems happening in Papua.”

The spokesperson for another group, Alissa Wahid, coordinator of the Gusdurian Network founded in honour of the late former president, says that during his life, Gus Dur – both as an ordinary citizen and as a leader of Islam and the republic – has provided a good example over relations with Papua.

Papuan name restored
According to Muhammad Irfan in Pikiran Rakyat, Gus Dur had restored the name of Papua as the region’s official designation (previously it was “West Irian”) and allowed the Morning Star to be flown by Papuans as a symbol of pride and cultural identity.

“This model needs to be followed as an example,” Wahid says. “So that the Papuan people are no longer treated with discrimination, and their aspirations are listened to and their human dignity respected.”

The groundswell of regional support continues to grow in the Pacific for West Papuan self-determination, as demonstrated by last week’s strongest statement yet from the Pacific Islands Forum – despite Australian and New Zealand reluctance.

This momentum will continue to grow until the Papuans get their genuine United Nations vote on their destiny, not the sham one of 1969, described by a US diplomatic cable at the time as a “Greek tragedy”.

History is on their side, just as it was for the Timorese in 1999, who next weekend will be celebrating their referendum vote for independence two decades ago.

Thanks to translations from Bahasa Indonesian by James Balowski of the Indoleft News Service.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

OPINION: Open letter by Charles Scheiner, Pamela Sexton and John M. Miller of ETAN

The people of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste will today celebrate the 42nd anniversary of their Declaration of Independence.

For the last 26 of those years, the US-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has supported their struggle for self-determination.

We stand in solidarity with all the people of Timor-Leste, and do not favour any political party or leader.

READ MORE IN TETUN: Timor-Leste selebra aniversáriu proklamasaun independénsia da-42; ETAN rekoñese no enkoraja ninia demokrasia ho dame

The Timorese people are currently facing a challenging time, as an opposition coalition in Parliament challenges the current government’s right to govern.

We encourage everyone to put the national interest above personal and partisan interests and to adhere to the Constitution, law, and democratic principles.

-Partners-

ETAN is confident in the strength of Timor-Leste’s democratic institutions and in its people’s commitment to stability, democracy and justice.

While politicians and commentators in Dili debate legal interpretations and jockey for power, the other 99 percent of the Timorese people are trying to live from day to day.

Public services
They depend on public services like education, health care and safety. Many still lack decent livelihoods and adequate food.

We encourage those in government, Parliament and political parties to design, improve, and carry out programmes to strengthen and diversify Timor-Leste’s economy, minimise poverty, decrease unemployment and malnutrition, reduce inequalities, and eliminate corruption.

Addressing these challenges will be the key to long-term stability for the country.

We also encourage every official, public servant and citizen to attend to people’s lives and families, without being distracted or paralysed by rumours, partisan maneuvering or anxiety about politics.

The President of the Republic will play a key role in resolving this political impasse, which we hope is over soon. We appreciate the calm way he is carrying out his duties under the Constitution, and we hope that he will continue to promote dialogue among political leaders, elected officials, civil society, ordinary citizens, and others to find the best solution for the entire nation.

We were encouraged by the President’s recent meeting with rural women leaders, and hope to see more women included fully in political discussions, including at the highest levels of political leadership.

Many people in Timor-Leste have traumatic memories of the brutal Indonesian occupation, as well as of the intra-Timorese conflicts of 2002 and 2006. However, people have learned from that history, as demonstrated by the largely peaceful last decade.

Moderation, restraint
We appreciate the moderation, restraint, and adherence to law currently exercised by nearly all citizens and by Timor-Leste’s police and military, and we expect that this will continue.

Although political rhetoric has sometimes been confrontational, it has not escalated to physical violence. We hope that the leaders and people of Timor-Leste continue to show their commitment to peaceful, democratic processes in a sovereign nation.

During the last 500 years, the small nation of Timor-Leste has often been oppressed, manipulated or exploited by international actors. We urge foreign powers to allow the Timorese people to work out their own problems without outside interference, even as we show our solidarity by encouraging Timor-Leste to follow a peaceful, fair and democratic path.

Yesterday, most people in the United States were celebrating Thanksgiving, a day to be grateful for the good people and things in our lives. We also recall the shameful history of European colonisation, especially the genocide of Native Americans.

ETAN also gives thanks for the sovereignty, democracy and peace that currently prevails in Timor-Leste, but we do not forget the shameful colonisation and occupation which foreign invaders, some supported by the United States government, inflicted on your people.

We recommit ourselves to improve democratic practices in the United States and to work for policies which secure human rights, end impunity, and achieve social and economic justice for both our peoples.

Timor-Leste has made more progress in 42 years than the United States has in 241, but both nations have a long way to go, and ETAN looks forward to the continuing journey

ETAN was in 2012 awarded the Order of Timor-Leste, the highest honour in the republic, for its “contribution to the liberation of the country”. Timor-Leste (East Timor) declared independence from Portugal on 28 November 1975, but was invaded by neighbouring Indonesia nine days later.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz