Step by Step - Stories of Resistance and Survival of the Women of East Timor

Step by Step provides the opportunity for thirteen outspoken Timorese women to tell their life stories: what it was like living in a Portuguese colony; how they were affected by the Indonesian invasion; what day to day life was like under the occupation or in the diaspora; how they contributed to the resistance; what they experienced in the mayhem after the referendum; and how they have adapted to the stark contrast of independence.


Step by Step may be ordered directly from the publisher, CDU Press at http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress/recent.html and for more information, please contact the Jude Conway at apscdarwin@yahoo.com.au


Here is some information about each of the storytellers, as provided by the editor:

Céu Lopes Federer , now a political researcher with the Australian embassy in Dili, worked with political prisoners on Atauro island, off Dili, in the early 80s, and with Jose Ramos-Horta and the East Timor International Support Centre when based in Australia during the 90s.

Dulce Vitor works in the Ministry of Social Solidarity. She spent 3 years in the jungle with her Fretilin family after the invasion, then was imprisoned and tortured.
Laura Soares Abrantes is completing her masters of sociology in Brazil and is gender consultant in Timor. She was active in the resistance as a student in Java and also in church scouts and as a staff member of Fokupers women’s NGO in Dili in the 90s.
Cesarina Rocha works with the Melaleuca Refugee Centre. She left East Timor aged 2 months during in the civil war in 1975 and became an activist with Australians for a Free East Timor in Darwin in the 90s.
Lucia Lobato is Minister for Justice in Dili. She was an area coordinator of underground student organisation Renetil in Java and worked in Xanana’s office in Jakarta in the lead-up to the referendum.
Luisa Ferreira Exposto lives in Jabiru Northern Territory. She attended demonstrations against the Indonesian military in Dili then escaped from East Timor in 1995 in a leaky boat.
Beba Sequeira is director of a women’s NGO in Dili. Her family were imprisoned and put on the black list for supporting the guerrillas during the occupation.
Filomena Reis is a poet and women and peace consultant in Timor. She participated in the resistance through the church scouts and as volunteer in Fokupers in Dili in the 90s. She has written a play about the Suai massacre of 1999.
Mica Barreto Soares is studying for her master’s degree in International relations in the USA. She was active in the leadership of Renetil in Java and Timor.
Ina Varella Bradridge runs the Hope orphanage in Gleno and teaches trauma counselling. She participated in the resistance throughout East Timor and through Hope NGO worked with internally displaced refugees in Dili in 1999.
Domingas Alves is the Minister of Social Solidarity. During the occupation she sent information to the outside world about the conditions of women and for 7 years was the wife of a political prisoner. She was a founder of Fokupers.
Maria Dias has been director of PAS health clinic for many years and sits on the advisory board of the Timorese Petroleum Fund. Her clinic supported people hiding from the authorities as well as poor people during the occupation.
Carolina do Rosario works part-time in an NGO and grows flowers to sell. Despite being married to a Timorese member of the military she secretly supported the guerrillas and provided information to foreign visitors during the occupation.



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