Dance and Martial Arts in Timor Leste: The Performance of Resilience in a Post-Conflict Environment

Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic study of dance traditions and martial arts training in rural upland mountain communities and the urban capital, Dili, in Timor Leste, and how ‘speaking beyond trauma’ is articulated through body movements. It explores the relationship between individual body movement and socio-political–ecological movements, both at the level of the local (rural villages) and the global (global governance outfits). It examines the intersection/s between indigenous traditional Timorese dances (such as soro tais, sau batar, foti raba, likurai, bidu, tebedai, tebe-tebe and other dances) and external ideational influences brought in by the presence of UN Peacekeeping and Police and international aid workers (including aikido martial arts). What do dance traditions tell us about the resilience of cultural identity in a post-war, post-revolutionary, post-conflict environment? What kinds of impact do external ideational influences, including martial arts forms, have on local communities? How are gender systems and gender relations in the community transformed? It suggests that embodiment and local knowledges formed through practices and regimens of bodily discipline, grace and physical training (such as in ritual, martial arts and performing arts, for example), can complement and/or challenge abstract theoretical writings on ‘embodying peace’ in post-war countries.

Keywords:

• Resilience
• Post-War Environments
• Female Mobility
• Rural Development
• Timorese Traditional Dance
• Embodying Peace
• Martial Arts

Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Tia Martha and her dance and music performance group in Mahata village, Oecussi who taught us how to dance ‘tapso’; to Delia and her dance students in the village of Suai Loro who taught us how to dance ‘soro tais’ and ‘sau batar’; to Mana Agus and Maun Fitun's family in Aitura village, Ermera who taught us how to dance ‘foti raba’; to Mr Ju-Hwan Sung, UN Police–Korea, Mr Wada from JICA, Japan, and Mr Ziad from UN Police–Egypt, who taught us here in Dili how to do irimi, tenkan, kaitan, sangkyo, shomenuchi, yokomenuchi, kotagaeshi and “how not to become a victim again”; to my research team, composed of Therese Tam Nguyen, Flotilda Sequeira da Costa, Joaninha de Araujo Quintao, Joanna Amaral; my son, Hadomi, who was only 3 then, but accompanied me on all the ethnographic fieldwork and trained in the dance and martial arts lessons as well; and my husband, Fernando Lasama de Araujo, who taught me why understanding indigenous belief systems and practices in Timor Leste is so important for wisdom on ‘interdependence’, and for our own individual, family, national and ecological survival on this planet.

Notes

1. Sally Ann Ness, Southeast Asian Texts, Ritual, and Performance Traditions, Department of Dance and Anthropology, University of California–Riverside, personal correspondence, July 2006. I owe a debt of gratitude to Sally Ann Ness and also to Hendro Sangkoyo (founder of the School of Democratic Economics) – whose inspiration, intellectual support and faith in my ability to conduct this research project in spite of overwhelming political odds and living in a conflict environment in Timor Leste, motivated me to keep moving, dancing and training.

2. See also James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

3. For a social–praxis application of these in villages throughout South-East Asia, see the School of Democratic Economics (SDE) framework, founded by Hendro Sangkoyo, who has designed an inspiring wheel made out of coconuts and other organic materials, to explain these concepts on the importance of social–ecological integrity as the solution to our present environmental and planetary crisis. We have also just began to set up the SDE framework in Timor Leste, linking villages to the university and other progressive scholars in the region, to introduce “a new method of learning” – from the embodiment, experience and wisdom of village women like the ones mentioned in this paper.

4. See Chapter 3 in Saul 2004: 65–114.

5. For an excellent analysis of the politics of love, romance and friendship in the Philippine and Vietnamese Revolutions, see, for example, Vina A. Lanzona, “Amazons in Love in the Time of Revolution: Reflections from the Huk and Vietnamese Revolutions”, Department of History, University of Hawaii–Manoa, paper presented to the panel on “Women Warriors in Southeast Asia”, International Conference of Asia Scholars (ICAS), Kuala Lumpur, August 2007.

6. See Ness 1992.

7. Butler 1993: 241.

8. Interview with Khairani, SH, Secretary-General of Relawan Perempuan untuk Kemanusiaan (RPUK) and one of only two women members formulating the RUU PA governing law for Aceh, Aceh, March 2006.

9. Timothy Mitchell makes a similar powerful analysis in his chapter on “Nobody Listens to a Poor Man”, in Rule of Experts, 2002.

10. Ness 1996: 142.

11. For a fascinating analysis of gangs and so-called “martial arts groups” in East Timor, see, for example, Gaku Homma Sensei, “Bujutsu Fighting Gangs in East Timor”, 5 January 2008, posted on the website of the Aikido Humanitarian Active Network (AHAN). This is an important analysis that should be read more widely amongst government policymakers, in terms of how to resolve the conflict amongst martial arts groups in Timor Leste.

12. “Matan dook” are ritual specialists in the sacred language (lulik) of socio-ecological cosmologies: for example, calling the rain to come so that the plants don't die; telling an impending storm to stop from ruining a special event; telling the river to “calm down” so that people and transportation can cross; diagnosing everyday illnesses in the villages and providing and/or performing a cure; foretelling one's past and one's future; and providing security and protection (tau lutu) from evil and destructive forces and human beings.

13. For interesting ethnographic work on this, see, for example, Marina Roseman, “Pure Products Go Crazy: Rainforest Healing in a Nation-State”, in Laderman and Roseman 1996.

14. For earlier work focusing specifically on Timor Leste, see, for example, Margaret King, “The Eagle Dance of Atsabe”, in Man, 65, March/April 1965, 49–50; for comparative analyses and studies, see, for example, the classic Society and the Dance, edited by Paul Spencer (1985); for more recent work, see, for example, Zoila S. Mendoza, Shaping Society through Dance: Mestizo Ritual Performance in the Peruvian Andes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

15. See, for example, Margaret Mead's film: Dance and Trance in Bali, 1952

16. “What is Aikido?”, in Aikikai Foundation Headquarters, 17–18 Wakamatsu Cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0056, Japan. http://www.aikikai.or.jp

17. See, for example, Gaku Homma Sensei, “Bujutsu Fighting Gangs in East Timor”, 5 January 2008, posted on the website of the Aikido Humanitarian Active Network (AHAN).

18. “What is Aikido?”, in Aikikai Foundation Headquarters, 17–18 Wakamatsu Cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 172-0056, Japan. http://www.akikai.or.jp

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacqueline Siapno

Dr Jacqueline Aquino Siapno (Joy) is currently an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea, where she teaches courses on Southeast Asian Histories and Cultures, Political Economy, and Feminist Theory/Gender Studies. She was the recipient of an ARC grant to conduct research on “Dance, Movements, and Visual Symbolism in East Timor” (2006–2008)