Category: History

Facts, Feasts & Forests: Considering Approaches to Truth and Reconciliation in Tanah Papua

August 23, 2019

By Todd Biderman and Jenny Munro From Flowers in the Wall – download full chapter What sorts of “truths” are included in “truth and reconciliation” and from whose perspective? In Tanah Papua we have the problem of a multi-dimensional conflict and a state that is very dedicated to controlling what is said about that conflict.… More Facts, Feasts & Forests: Considering Approaches to Truth and Reconciliation in Tanah Papua

Self-Determination Abandoned: The Road to the New York Agreement on West Papua

August 22, 2019

By David Webster West Papua, occupied by Indonesia since the 1960s, is making headlines with a wave of protests sparked by anti-Papuan racism. How did this territory come under Indonesian rule? This article from Cornell University’s journal Indonesia (now in open access) provides context on how the Papuan right to self-determination was abandoned in the… More Self-Determination Abandoned: The Road to the New York Agreement on West Papua

Voting with Betel Juice: a Timorese short story by Dadolin Murak

August 9, 2019

In this story, written in 2017 and recently translated into English. Timor-Leste writer Dadolin Murak depicts a family caught up in the politics of a Timorese election. Timor-Leste (East Timor) experienced Indonesian military occupation and crimes against humanity from 1975 to 1999, when the country voted for independence. That vote, on 30 August 1999, is… More Voting with Betel Juice: a Timorese short story by Dadolin Murak

Reflecting on Reconciliation

May 30, 2019

By Maggie Helwig (Excerpted from Flowers in the Wall: Truth & Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Melanesia; original here. To situate myself at the start—I am a settler in Turtle Island/Canada (henceforth referred to as “Canada” simply for convenience), of mixed English, Irish, and German ancestry, living on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of… More Reflecting on Reconciliation

“Politika Taka Malu,” Censorship, and Silencing: Virtuosos of Clandestinity in Timor-Leste

April 30, 2019

By Jacqueline Aquino Siapno Excerpted from Flowers in the Wall This chapter explores the paradox of being asked to examine “the truth” when the methods used during the clandestine period were to have no history of records (i.e., leave no trace behind)—a negation of the work of historians and historiography (while keeping in mind the… More “Politika Taka Malu,” Censorship, and Silencing: Virtuosos of Clandestinity in Timor-Leste

Truth and Reconciliation in 28 Countries – latest edition of student-authored textbook

February 20, 2019

The latest version of this textbook on truth commissions, written by Bishop’s University students, is now published. Students write Wikipedia articles for their course work and the articles are then published in book form. This project is possible thanks to the Wiki Educational Foundation. Wiki Edu wrote about the previous edition in 2018: Wikipedia is… More Truth and Reconciliation in 28 Countries – latest edition of student-authored textbook

Digitized newsletters of the East Timor solidarity movement

January 17, 2019

A new web site, History Beyond Borders, is starting to share digitized newsletters from East Timor solidarity groups published during the Indonesian occupation (1999-75) and after. It runs off Access to memory (AtoM), a comprehensive archival documents software hosted in Canada and compliant with International Council of Archives standards. A preliminary version with some materials… More Digitized newsletters of the East Timor solidarity movement

Memorializing Dili, Timor-Leste

November 12, 2018

The right to food; the right to health. Images of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it gets ready to turn 70. Centro Nacional Chega, the Timor-Leste centre for truth & reconciliation, Dili, Timor-Leste. pic.twitter.com/sYhjUeKHBE — David Webster (@dwebsterbu) October 30, 2018 Instead of mega-monuments glorifying the past, a photo exhibit explains a complex… More Memorializing Dili, Timor-Leste

The Touchy Historiography of Indonesia’s 1965 Mass Killings: Intractable Blockades?

October 3, 2018

By Bernd Schaefer The violence of 1965–66 is both a domestic and an international issue. It cannot just be reduced to the fact that Indonesians were killing Indonesians, and therefore labelled an Indonesian affair and an Indonesian tragedy. That is only part of the story. It is also an international story: many countries bear responsibility,… More The Touchy Historiography of Indonesia’s 1965 Mass Killings: Intractable Blockades?