There was a wide ranging weekend display of Timorese culture and history which included some of the large collection of East Timor freedom struggle T-shirts built up by Darwin agronomist and activist Robert Wesley-Smith who was in attendance .
Shown above inspecting the T-shirts at the Portuguese and Timorese Social Club is Lurdes Pires, a prominent member of the Darwin Timorese community.
A filmmaker, she was a director of the 2022 Circle of Silence ,based on the Walkley Award winning book by Shirley Shackleton which investigated the murder of the Australian based news team at Balibo during the Indonesian invasion of Portuguese East Timor and the subsequent cover up .
Shackleton's husband, Greg, a Channel 7 reporter , was one of the five murdered.
Pires knew Australian journalist Roger East , in Darwin , when he was employed by the Darwin Reconstruction Commission , set up by the Whitlam Government after Cyclone Tracy, at first headed by Sir Leslie Thiess , from which East resigned , went to Timor to help the Fretilin resistance movement, and was shot and thrown into the sea at Dili .
Wesley-Smith subsequently re-enacted that event in Darwin, taking the part of East .
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The display included photographs , Timorese textiles , artwork and even Wes's pumpkin which won first prize at the recent Darwin Show . It was rolled out of the way under a table covered with Timor books .
On Sunday night , Wes attended a Timor- Leste Government sponsored function held in the Convention Centre . He took along the Order of Timor - Leste sash and medal he and his twin brothers, Martin and Peter , had each been awarded in Dili for supporting Timor in the long battle . Wes also has a Princess Grace Kelly medal awarded for helping refugees from East Timor .
There had been a proposal to display the celebrity pumpkin at the event , but it seems the bouncing melon failed to turn up . However, a local bishop and a cardinal who flew in from Timor- Leste with other officials attended .
From his extensive files , oft mentioned in this blog and followed up , Wesley-Smith produced two poems about the long East Timor struggle for freedom .
One deplored Australia's stance in the East Timor battle and was composed by another of his brothers, the late Jerry Wesley-Smith in 1992.
The other , written by Wes in l978 , a parody of the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner , was scathing of the USA supplying Indonesia with Bronco ground attack aircraft which were used against Timorese freedom fighters.
UPCOMING: Fascinating plans for a distinctive musical about Darwin's involvement in the East Timor struggle which might include some of the late Martin Wesley-Smith's cutting edge electronic music making techniques.
(Timor,Darwin,Musical.)
