National Library a step closer

3 March 2011

Plans to establish a National Library of Timor-Leste moved a step closer with the recent appointment of a library specialist to guide its development.

Karen Myers, an Australian librarian with significant East Timor working experience, began a 7-month contract in mid-January.

Her appointment follows international advertising in September 2010 through the Italian oil company, Eni, which is contributing substantial funds to the National Library project.

The broad shape of the new institution as a national coordinating body for all libraries in Timor-Leste is outlined in a recent government statement.

The contract library specialist tasks include input into design of physical infrastructure, legal framework for the library, cultural and educational policy statements, training requirements, human resources planning and collection and acquisition policies.

Karen Myers

Timor Experience
Prior to coming to Timor full-time in 2006, Karen worked in a public library service in Victoria and, from 2002, periodically did library work and training at the National University of Timor-Leste.

She worked through Australian Volunteers International in 2006-7 in advisory roles and course development work at the Dili Institute of Technology. In 2007-9 she was advisor to the Documentation Centre of the Post-CAVR Secretariat.

National Library and Archives
CHART has a special interest in the emergence of the National Library for three specific archives-related reasons.

What’s in a name?
The new institution is called the National Library and Archives on the Secretary of State for Culture website. There was some speculation in 2009 that the new institution might incorporate the existing government archives (Arquivo Nacional) and/or some other smaller special interest archives emerging in Timor-Leste (see our brief report here). We look forward to learning more about the expected archives functions in the new National Library.

CHART connection?
CHART is currently planning a significant digitisation program of Australian-held Timor archival materials. We hope to arrange public access to these files through emerging institutions in Timor-Leste. An archives function at the National Library would make the new institution a potential candidate for such an arrangement with CHART.

Today’s publications, tomorrow’s archives
Our 2003 report on archives developments in Timor-Leste noted that “there does not yet appear to be any institution committed to collecting output from today’s East Timor. Today’s newspapers, books, images, leaflets, radio broadcasts and so forth are tomorrow’s archival record of East Timorese civil society in its early life as an independent nation.” (p.11). We await with great interest to see whether the emerging National Library will take on this important role.

Leave a Comment » | Timorese repositories | Permalink
Posted by timorarchives

Vale Penny Tweedie

24 January 2011

Penny Tweedie, one of a select group of professional photographers who have contributed irreplaceable images to the documentary record of East Timor’s modern history, died tragically in England on 09 January 2011.

Her photographs of events and people in East Timor in the immediate aftermath of the dramatic 1975 civil war will be especially important to future generations of East Timorese. Her contribution to East Timor’s archival record will live on in these images.

Some details of her extraordinary working life can be found in an obituary in The Guardian (UK).

Timor images
A small number of Penny’s 1975 Timor images are well-known – though often circulated on the internet without any attribution to, or knowledge of, the original creator.

Penny was very protective of her professional copyright and was unhappy with unauthorised use of her work. For this reason, we have not reproduced any of those images here.

A number of agencies handle commercial distribution of Penny’s work and carry samples of her Timor photographs on their websites. The most comprehensive set of 1975 images can be found at Panos.

The Alamy agency also displays some of her 1975 images, along with work from a 2007 visit to Timor Leste. A subset of the Alamy images can be seen at Corbis.

Arriving in East Timor after 1975 civil war. (From left) Bob Hannan, Jose Ramos-Horta, Penny Tweedie, Clive Scollay

Many 1975 images still unseen
A much larger number of images from her 1975 visit to East Timor have yet to be seen publicly. In personal communications with CHART in 2009-10, Penny advised she had some 50 rolls of black and white film.

Penny agreed to a CHART request to place copies of all these images on this website;  the mechanics of achieving this must now await later discussions with her Estate.

Tweedie materials already in Timor Leste
Official copies of some of Penny Tweedie’s key images from 1975 are already held in Timor. Some are in the collection of the Commission for Reception, Truth & Reconciliation (CAVR). We know from correspondence with Penny that the office of President Jose Ramos-Horta was given high resolution scans of some 190 images in early 2010.

CHART hopes these images will one day be accessible to all Timorese. We will endeavour to ensure all the as-yet-unseen images from Penny Tweedie’s  Timor work eventually become accessible in Timor-Leste as a lasting testimonial to her part in recording the country’s troubled recent history.

———-

Credits

Penny Tweedie image: Self-portrait taken from her own website.

1975 image: Courtesy of Bob Hannan.

POSTSCRIPT
More Penny Tweedie obituaries and reflections online

Panos Pictures. 21 January 2011

Lisa Hogben Blog. 23 January 2011

Editorial Photographers (UK). 24 January 2011

Australian Geographic. 25 January 2011

Funeral Eulogy – Duncan Campbell. 27 January 2011

BBC4 audio. “Last Word”. 28 January 2011. Speakers include John Pilger and her son, Ben Tweedie. Segment begins at 15 minutes into program.

The Australian. 31 January 2011

Sydney Memorial Event (20 February) – Media Release. 06 February 2011

1 Comment | Access, International collections, Timorese collections | Permalink
Posted by timorarchives

Chega! Launched in Indonesia

11 October 2010

Principal editor, Rani Elsanti, with the product of three years work

Chega!, the monumental 2005 report of Timor Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) is set to be widely circulated inside Indonesia.

Something like a Domesday Book for Timor Leste, Chega! is the benchmark account of the dramatic and tragic history of Timor’s struggle for self-determination, 1974-1999.

The Indonesian-language, five volume, 3,500 page boxed set of Chega! was published in Jakarta last week by KPG (Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia) after more than three years’ work. The Indonesian edition also includes a 100-page summary volume and an electronic version of the whole report text on CD.

Publication was funded by the governments of Ireland and Germany.

Jakarta launch of Chega
The National Library of Indonesia hosted the well-attended book launch in Jakarta on the evening of 7 October 2010. East Timorese were represented at the launch by the current director of the Post-CAVR Secretariat in Dili, Agustinho de Vasconselos, and two of his senior staff.

Speakers at the launch included Benny Harman (Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives Committee III) and Indonesian historian Hilmar Farid

Facebook members can see images from the book launch on KPG’s Facebook Album.

Chega! ‘A gift to humanity’
Hilmar Farid noted that there was nothing comparable to Chega! in Indonesia, hailing it as benchmark for what Indonesia needs on its own history.

‘A gift to humanity’ was MP Benny Harman’s judgement of the report.  He said Chega! meant that everything Indonesians had been told about Timor-Leste in the past was a lie and that it should be made available to the Indonesian public through the education system.

Pax Benedanto, General Manager of KPG, said publishing Chega! was KPG’s largest ever project and a source of pride and honour for the firm. He expressed the hope that it would be received in Indonesia “dengan hati besar dan kepala dingin” (with a big heart and a cool head).

Obtaining Chega!
Information on how to obtain this newly published Indonesian version of Chega! will be provided here as soon as the information is to hand.

The set is listed for sale in Indonesia at about AUD$100 through KPG’s online store, but as of 12 October, stocks are not yet available.

The original 2005 electronic versions of the report can be accessed in English and Portuguese on the Post-CAVR Secretariat website. They are not yet available in printed form.

Chega! and archives
The print publication of Chega! in Indonesia draws new attention to this extraordinary resource. In turn, its launch again highlights the crucial task of preserving the complete original source material on which Chega is based.

The future of the CAVR archive, a national treasure in its own right, is a key question underlying long-delayed and controversial legislation now before the parliament of Timor Leste. We can only hope that the final decision of the legislators recognises the long-term importance of the archive to the nation and the people of Timor Leste. We hope the legislation will decree professional archival management of, and public access to, the CAVR archives.

See earlier blog post on the future of the CAVR archives here.

Credits
Many thanks to Patrick Walsh, former special advisor to CAVR (2002-2010), for information and images on the Jakarta launch.

1 Comment | Access, Timorese collections | Permalink
Posted by timorarchives

East Timor News 1977-1985: Now online

23 September 2010

Issues of East Timor News (ETN) are now available in digitised form through the Timor Archives: Newsletters website.

ETN was an Australian newsletter in the top rank of influential Timor solidarity newsletters in the early post-invasion years. In its first two years, it was the principal international vehicle for publicising, in English, radio communications from the Fretilin-led resistance inside Indonesian-occupied East Timor.

It began as a fortnightly publication in a newspaper format of ‘tabloid’ size. Like most comparable Timor newsletters of the time, publication became less frequent in later years.

After the loss of radio contact with the resistance in early December 1978, ETN continued production with analyses of available information and reproduction of significant reports, including mainstream print media articles.

Origins
ETN was produced in Sydney in the name of the East Timor News Agency (ETNA), 1977-1985. The driving force behind ETN was prominent Timor independence activist Denis Freney (1936-1995).

Denis Freney was a leading member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) at the time. He travelled to East Timor in 1974, soon after the formation of ASDT, the forerunner of Fretilin. He was the key figure in the Sydney branch of the solidarity organisation, Campaign for Independent East Timor (CIET), which had branches in most Australian states.

The Sydney CIET office was located in the old Boilermakers Hall in Castlereagh Street where, from 1975, Freney issued prodigious volumes of news and commentary on Timor using the roneo technology of the time. ETN began in 1977 as a more formal vehicle for Freney’s output; it was he who largely planned and prepared the newsletter. ETN was printed at the CPA printer at Forest Lodge and mailed out to subscribers by CIET volunteers.

Compiling the news input for ETN was a team effort – especially when it came to handling radio communications from the resistance. That work involved the clandestine radio team, transfers of tapes in Darwin and transcription in Sydney.  This team also transcribed Fretilin’s encoded communications and telexed them to the Fretilin External Delegation in Maputo, Mozambique.

Fretilin connection
Denis Freney worked very closely with Fretilin and was a confidant of senior members of the Fretilin external delegation in the early years.

From this distance, it is unclear whether the East Timor News Agency which published East Timor News is a direct successor to the ETNA created by Fretilin in East Timor in late 1975. The first issue of ETN in February 1977 is ambiguous on this question, but does talk of the ‘re-establishment’ of the 1975 ETNA.

Either way, Denis Freney’s strong, unambiguous commitment to Fretilin was reflected in the style and content of East Timor News. His identification with both the CPA and Fretilin meant that ETN, while widely valued in solidarity circles for its news content in particular, was often treated with scepticism by Australian mainstream media, many politicians and non-government organisations.

East Timor News has an important place in the archival record of Australian support for the East Timorese struggle for self-determination. We are delighted to make it available here.

Credits
Thanks to Cecily Gilbert for her work to convert the brittle and fading original newsletters into the digital form.

Thanks to Peter Murphy for some background information on ETN. Peter was a member of the original ETN editorial collective and currently coordinator/secretary of a CPA successor organisation, the Search Foundation.

Other sources:
A valuable record of the work of CIET and Denis Freney can be found in his surviving papers at the National Library of Australia (NLA). Library Reference: MS9535

The Freney papers at the NLA include a comprehensive set of his aforementioned roneo-format productions. In 2004 a copy of this set went to Timor’s Commission for Reception, Truth & Reconciliation (CAVR) in Dili. When resources permit, Timor Archives will digitise Freney roneod material surviving in the Timor Information Service archives in Melbourne.

Insider accounts of the clandestine radio team mentioned have been recorded by two participants, Brian Manning and Chris Elenor.

1 Comment | Access, Australian collections | Permalink
Posted by timorarchives

Digitising East Timor newsletters

17 September 2010

The CHART Project has established a new website to view copies of 1974-1999 East Timor newsletters.

Newsletters produced internationally by solidarity activists and non-government organisations, along with the Timorese external resistance and broader Timorese diaspora, were a key means of circulating information about East Timor. They were especially important and influential in the pre-internet days of the 1970s and 1980s.

Digitising for access

Timor Archives: Newsletters is designed as an interim access point for newsletters digitised in a larger scanning project by CHART.

The new website now holds a full set of Timor Information Service (TIS), 1975-1983. This word-searchable digital set of TIS supersedes the newsletter samples described on this Blog in June.

More to come

We hope to include as many newsletters as possible on the website – subject to the availability of original print copies and agreement from the original creators.

Newsletters currently in the scanning pipeline include the Denis Freney / ETNA  East Timor News newspaper, the Pat Walsh / ACFOA East Timor Report and Timor Link from the (British) Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR, now known as Progressio, has an active presence in Timor Leste today).

Still early days, but more to come.

If your organisation would like to include its newsletter in this collection, please email us: blog [at] timorarchives.info

Leave a Comment » | Access, Australian collections | Permalink
Posted by timorarchives

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »