The Sculptures of Atauro Island - Dili
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Hatene ami-nia moris/Know our World - Tabaco-Lot
Dili
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The Sculptures of Atauro Island
Hatene ami-nia moris/Know our World - St. Kilda
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Exhibitions

Timor Aid regularly coordinates exhibitions that showcase aspects of Timor-Leste’s rich cultural heritage. Our exhibitions aim to promote Timor-Leste’s cultural heritage to a wider audience both nationally and internationally, and to educate young people in Timor-Leste. We have held exhibitions across Timor-Leste, as well as in Indonesia, Australia, and the USA.
The information presented in our exhibitions is the result of Timor Aid’s research over the past 20 years and helps to preserve and promote Timor-Leste’s rich cultural traditions. All of our exhibitions are made possible through the support of partners and the generosity of donors. Timor Aid has been fortunate to work closely with Joana Barrkman, who has guest curated several exhibitions for us; and with Kristin Philips and Anthony Van Papenrecht from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, who have provided training for our display technicians.

Past Exhibitions

This exhibition presented the results of the weaving training of 40 young weavers from Oe-cusse RAEOA and the Municipality of Covalima, during ten months of weaving training. This activity is an important part of the Timor Aid Cultural Preservation program, funded by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP, U.S. Embassy in TL)

Exhibition in Oe-cusse RAEOA, April 24 2023

Exhibition in Municipality of Covalima, June 01 2023

This exhibition was organised as part of Timor Aid’s Cultural Preservation Project funded by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP, U.S. Embassy-TL). More details of the program you can find here.

The Sculptures of Atauro Island was an exhibition showcasing the cultural heritage of the Atauro people. This exhibition curated by Joanna Barrkmann and organized by Charles Darwin University Art gallery in partnership with the secretariat State of Tourism Art & Culture and Timor Aid. The objectives of this exhibition are to promote and develop Atauro carving which is our heritage from our ancestors

This exhibition presented an important collection of 68 traditional woven textiles from West Timor and Timor-Leste, the majority of which date back to the 20th century or even earlier. As a whole, they bear witness to the great regional diversity of artisanal production of the Island of Timor that is still carried out today by women on wooden looms. The exhibited specimens, most of which belong to the collection of Peter ten Hoopen, were complemented with some pieces from a private Swiss collection and a selection of photographs from Timor-Leste from the 1960s, which are part of the Oriente Foundation’s collection.

This exhibition explored the rich culture of the people of Suai-Camenaça, of Covalima District in Timor-Leste. Documenting the Cultural Heritage of Suai-Camenaça formed part of the research work being conducted by Timor Aid in partnership with Institute of Research for Development (IRD).

The works and artefacts of the exhibition showcase the cultural heritage research work conducted by Timor Aid in 2014 with the village communities of Suai Villa, Matai, Holbelis, Lohorai, Camenaça and Suai-Loro villages, making a record of their material and intangible cultural heritage as it stands today, before the inevitable changes that time, and displacement will bring. The centrepiece of Timor-Leste’s 2011-2030 Strategic Development Plan is the Tasi Mane Project, a corridor of petroleum infrastructure along the southwest coast of the country. This area is almost entirely agriculture land, the food source gardens of the local villages, and includes domestic houses in small hamlets, ceremonial houses and sacred graves in remnant forest areas that are the basis of the spiritual and cultural life of the communities the villages of Matai, Suai, Labarai lie around the town of Suai Villa.

Holbelis is the area just nearby, and the village of Camenaça is on the outskirts of town. All these places, called collectively Suai-Camenaça named after the old kingdom, and are places of the Tetun and Bunak people. The aim of the research was to record the cultural practices, providing an opportunity for reviving memories of craft practices and language usage, recounting beliefs and reaffirming the importance of place and ritual.

During 2014, Timor Aid visited the communities on many occasions, to photograph people and places, record language as it is spoken, learn more about the textiles and the ceramics, survey the ecology and the ethno-botanic uses of local plants, and learn about traditional beliefs, ceremonies and history. 

Embrace our Culture, Tais /Tenun exhibition, an exhibition of the unique textiles from various places in Timor-Leste and East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Curated by Timor Aid and mounted at Indonesia Cultural Centre in Dili. It is a partnership between Timor Aid and the Indonesian Embassy. This exhibition showcased various distinctive traditional textiles to represent the richness of this practise in different places across Timor-Leste and East Nusa Tenggara. The collection was gathered from Timor Aid collection and private collection within the Indonesian communities in Timor-Leste.

This exhibition was part of a one day event to commemorate the Timor-Leste Independence restoration on May 20th, with the following components:

  1. The textile exhibition
  2. Culture talk
  3. Cultural night

Timor Aid was honoured to be considered as the local partner to curate the exhibition and participate in the cultural talk,  promoting the cultural tradition, especially the textiles which has been always the primary focus of Timor Aid work.

Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea was organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and co-curated by Roy W. Hamilton, Senior Curator of Asian and Pacific Collections, Fowler Museum, and Joanna Barrkman, an independent curator contracted by the National Gallery of Australia. Fowler published the book Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea, edited by the co-curators, Edited by Roy W. Hamilton and Joanna Barrkman. (https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780984755080/textiles-of-timor-island-in-the-woven-sea/)

Major funding for the exhibition and accompanying publication was provided by the R. L. Shep Endowment Fund at the Fowler Museum and the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support was provided by the UC Pacific Rim Research Program, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and The Ahmanson Foundation, on the recommendation of Foundation Trustee

Emeritus, Lloyd E. Cotsen (publication only). Additional support came from the Stella Krieger Memorial Fund, Avrum and Martha Bluming, Carolyn and Charles Knobler, the Fowler Museum Textile Council, The UCLA Foundation in memory of Anne Summerfield, and Manus, the support group of the Fowler Museum.

The Baskets of Maubara was the first non-textiles exhibition held by Timor Aid to promote the work of the Maubara basket weavers in Liquica District. The materials and processes of basket weaving were shared with audiences to promote greater understanding and appreciation of the history and the expertise behind the Maubara weavers.

The exhibition was organized together with the launch of the book Maubara Baskets, written by Ms. Joanna Barrkman. The launch was hosted by the French Ambassador for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Ms Corine Breuze. Also present were the ambassador of the European Commission to Timor-Leste, Ms. Sylvie Tabesse, French Defence attaché to Indonesia, representative of the Consulate of France to Timor-Leste, Aurelie Saguin, and the representative of Secretary of State for Art and Culture. Maubara Basket is about the distinctive basket weaving in this area, the publication was made possible with the support of French Institute to Timor-Leste.

The basket weavers enthusiastically demonstrated their weaving skills to the audience and set up a display table of their product for sale. The exhibition was part of the Timor Aid Culture Program funded by European Commission to build the capacity of local institution working in the culture sector. We also would like to thank the generosity of the Sentru Cultural Xanana for enabling us to host the exhibition at the centre, National Commission for Unesco (NatCom) and Legioval for their support in this exhibition.

A Nossa Heranca co-incited with the summit of the Comunidade dos Paises da Lingua Portuguesa, Community of Portuguese Speaking Country (CPLP) for which Timor-Leste was the host nation in 2014.

Nossa Heranca showcased the heritage of the nation, with piece selected from the NCTL, Timor Aid, Alola foundation and a number of private collections.It was launch by her Excellency the Secretary of State for Art and Culture, Ms Maria Isabel de Jesus Ximenes, and Mr. Lu Olo, the President of CPLP. Representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, Secretary of State for Private Sector, Secretary of State for Gender Equality were also in attendance at the opening ceremony. This exhibition was hosted by the Secretaria de Estado da Arte e Cultura (SEAC) and curated by Timor Aid, held at the Archives and Museum of the Resistance in Colmera.

In 2013, through the project funded by European Commission, In search of common ground: Textile Cultural tradition of the Island of Timor, Timor Aid entered into a partnership with the Museum of Textile, Jakarta, Indonesia to organize a joint exhibition about textiles of the border. Supported by the Ministry of Tourism of Timor-Leste through the Secretary of State for Art and Culture, Timor Aid and our partner institution launched the first Timor Aid textile exhibition abroad.

The exhibition showcased textiles of 5 regions in Timor-Leste and several textiles of West Timor. Launched by the National Director of Tourism of Timor-Leste and Dinas Pariwisata Indonesia; also in attendance representative of Timor-Leste consulate in Jakarta, representative of Secretary of State for Art and Culture and textile collectors.

This exhibition was accompanied by the launch of the bilingual (English and Indonesian) book Seni Futus – The Art of Futus. Besides promoting the textiles of Timor to a wider audience in Indonesia, this exhibition also served as capacity building for Timor Aid and its partners to learn how to mount an exhibition to international standards under the guidance of the international curator Joanna Barrkman.

 

An exhibition that explored the textile traditions of the Kemak people of Marobo in the district of Bobonaro, and the work of the anthropologist Brigitte Clamagirand who worked in the village of Marobo in 1969.