Understanding Timor-Leste, on the ground and from afar (eds) and Bexley Nygaard-Christensen This ground-breaking exploration of research in Timor-Leste brings together veteran and early-career scholars who broadly Fieldwork in represent a range of fieldwork practices and challenges from colonial times to the present day. Here, they introduce readers to their experiences of conducting anthropological, historical and archival fieldwork in this new nation. The volume further Timor-Leste explores the contestations and deliberations that have been in Timor-Leste Fieldwork symptomatic of the country’s nation-building process, high- Understanding Social Change through Practice lighting how the preconceptions of development workers and researchers might be challenged on the ground. By making more explicable the processes of social and political change in Timor- Leste, the volume offers a critical contribution for those in the academic, policy and development communities working there. This is a must-have volume for scholars, other fieldworkers and policy-makers preparing to work in Timor-Leste, invaluable for those needing to understand the country from afar, and a fascinating read for anyone interested in the Timorese world. ‘Researchers and policymakers reading up on Timor Leste before heading to the field will find this handbook valuable. It is littered with captivating fieldwork stories. The heart-searching is at times searingly honest. Best of all, the book beautifully bridges the sometimes painful gap between Timorese researchers and foreign experts (who can be irritating know-alls). Academic anthropologists and historians will find much of value here, but the Timor policy community should appreciate it as well.’ – Gerry van Klinken, KITLV ‘This book is well worth reading by academics, activists and policy-makers in Timor-Leste and also those interested in the country’s development. Besides por- traying the society, culture, economics and politics of Timor-Leste, it is sensitive to the values that Timorese fight for in their life.’ – Hugo M. Fernandes, Counsellor, Timor-Leste Press Council and Director of Public Policy & Institutional Strengthen- ing, The Asia Foundation Edited by www.niaspress.dk Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley Nygaard-Bexley-pbk-cover.indd 1 27/03/2017 16:10 FIELDWORK IN TIMOR-LESTE Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 1 13/03/2017 13:55 NIAS–Nordic Institute of Asian Studies NIAS Studies in Asian Topics 47 Saying the Unsayable: Monarchy and Democracy in Thailand d Søren Ivarsson and Lotte Isager (eds) 48 Plaited Arts from the Borneo Rainforest d Bernard Sellato (ed.) 49 Cambodia’s Economic Transformation d Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un (eds) 50 Ancestors in Borneo Societies: Death, Transformation and Social Immortality d Pascal Couderc and Kenneth Sillander (eds) 51 Creative Spaces: Seeking the Dynamics of Change in China d Denise Gimpel, Bent Nielsen and Paul Bailey (eds) 52 Red Stamps and Gold Stars: Fieldwork Dilemmas in Upland Socialist Asia d Sarah Turner (ed.) 53 On the Fringes of the Harmonious Society: Tibetans and Uyghurs in Socialist China d Trine Brox and Ildikó Bellér-Hann (eds) 54 Doing Fieldwork in China … with Kids! The Dynamics of Accompanied Fieldwork in the People’s Republic d Candice Cornet and Tami Blumenfield (eds) 55 UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspective d Victor T. King (ed.) 56 War and Peace in the Borderlands of Myanmar: The Kachin Ceasefire, 1994–2011 d Mandy Sadan (ed.) 57 Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism d Paul T. Cohen (ed.) 58 Reinventing Social Democratic Development: Insights from Indian and Scandinavian Comparisons d Olle Törnquist and John Harriss (eds) 59 Fieldwork in Timor-Leste: Understanding Social Change through Practice d Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley (eds) 60 Debating the East Asian Peace: What it is. How it came about. Will it last? d Elin Bjarnegård and Joakim Kreutz (eds) 61 Khaki Capital: The Political Economy of the Military in Southeast Asia d Paul Chambers and Napisa Waitoolkiat (eds) 62 Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asia: Local Cultures of Conflict Within a Regional Context d Michael W. Charney and Kathryn Wellen(eds) NIAS Press is the autonomous publishing arm of NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, a research institute located at the University of Copenhagen. NIAS is partially funded by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden via the Nordic Council of Ministers, and works to encourage and support Asian studies in the Nordic countries. In so doing, NIAS has been publishing books since 1969, with more than two hundred titles produced in the past few years. UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Nordic Council of Ministers Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 2 13/03/2017 13:55 FIELDWORK IN TIMOR-LESTE Understanding Social Change through Practice edited by Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 3 13/03/2017 13:55 Fieldwork in Timor-Leste Understanding Social Change through Practice Edited by Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Studies in Asian Topics, no. 59 First published in 2017 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45 3532 9501 • Fax: +45 3532 9549 E-mail: [email protected] • Online: www.niaspress.dk © NIAS Press 2017 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, copyright in the individual chapters belongs to their authors. No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-87-7694-208-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-87-7694-209-0 (pbk) Typeset in Arno Pro 12/14.4 Typesetting by BookWork Printed and bound in Great Britain by Marston Book Services Limited, Oxfordshire Cover image: ‘Recovering Lives Across Borders’ (2008) by Culture Kitchen (4 x 1.8-metre lino cut on fabric) Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 4 13/03/2017 13:55 Contents Acknowledgements vii Contributors ix Acronyms xii Glossary xiv Introduction 1. Fieldwork in a New Nation (Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley) 1 Portuguese Timor 2. Research Past and Research Present: Doing Fieldwork in Portuguese Timor and Timor-Leste (David Hicks) 32 3. Lost Traces: Hunting the Past in the Colonial Archives of Timor- Leste (Ricardo Roque) 58 Fieldwork in a New Nation 4. Imagining Ethnography: Reflections on Fieldwork in Lautem (Andrew McWilliam) 80 5. The Geração Foun and Indonesia: Exclusion, Belonging and the Nation-State (Angie Bexley) 99 Spatiality and Temporality 6. Fantasy and Fossilization in the Study of Timor-Leste: Territoriality, Demography, and Status (Douglas Kammen) 125 7. Entanglements of Power, Kinship and Time in Laclubar (Judith Bovensiepen) 144 Post-conflict Fieldwork 8. Rocks Don’t Recognise Malae: Doing Ethnographic Research on Land Conflict In Timor-Leste (Pyone Myat Thu) 169 9. The UN Document Leak: The Production of Political Controversy (Maj Nygaard-Christensen) 191 v Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 5 13/03/2017 13:55 Fieldwork in Timor-Leste Positionality 10. Research as Active Citizenship: Public Policy Research in Timor- Leste (Guteriano N. Soares Neves) 208 11. Malae Melee: A Failed Attempt to Observe the Making of Timor- Leste’s First Feature Film (Amy Rothschild) 227 Index 247 Figures 0.1. Indonesia and Timor-Leste xv 0.2. Timor-Leste xv 2.1 and 2.2. Viqueque town market 1967 49 2.3. and 2.4. A kiosk along the main commercial street in Viqueque town 2007 50 2.5. Viqueque market showing stalls inside in 2007 52 2.6. Viqueque town market showing stalls inside the building in 2007 52 7.1. Map of Laclubar in Manatuto district 148 7.2. Liurai of Funar and Fatumakerek 152 7.3. Rulers in Laclubar in 1952 153 7.4. Marriage alliances amongst liurai of the Laclubar sub-district 154 7.5. Liurai of Manelima 156 7.6. Political affiliations in 1975 159 8.1. Map of Timor-Leste showing the districts of Baucau and Manufahi 173 vi Nygaard-Bexley_book.indd 6 13/03/2017 13:55 Acknowledgements Two different events inspired the writing of this volume. Firstly, it grew out of our collaboration on editing a special issue on Timor-Leste in the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (Bexley and Nygaard-Christensen, 2013). This issue examined the complexity of the past, memories, and local traditions and how they are all reimagined in contemporary Timor-Leste. Through the process of working on the special issue, our attention turned to the unique practice of fieldwork itself as a way of story-telling about social change. Secondly, the ‘Crossing Histories and Ethnographies: Anthropology and the colonial archive’ conference convened by Ricardo Roque and held in Lisbon in July 2013, played a part in the idea for this volume. Here, David Hicks’ presentation on his fieldwork in Portuguese Timor prompted us to move forward with the idea of producing a volume in which ethnographers and others shared their experiences with conducting qualitative research in Timor-Leste and the ways in which this mapped on to significant moments of social change in the country. We wish to thank all of the authors who joined us in this process, and whose various contributions not only introduced us to their experiences with conducting research in a new nation. Together, their chapters also served to broaden the original idea of a volume focusing on fieldwork practices to include a critical engagement with the analytical categories through which we have come to understand Timor-Leste. With the resulting volume, we hope to build a community of practice where aca- demics and development practitioners engage critically with the ideas in this book and reflect on their own positionality in the context of an emerging nation. We would like to extend our thanks to the Culture Kitchen artists who allowed us to use the image on the cover of this volume.