Braz, Emanuel António de Araújo (2014) Timoroan: National Identity in Timor-Leste. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis explores the multidimensionality of contemporary Timoroan as reflection of the narratives of politics and history that engulfed Timor-Leste since the 1500s and that in many respects continues to this day to inform who the Timoroan are and what Timor-Leste is. Timor-Leste is a proud nation and the Timoroan have every right to be proud, there is much to be proud of, but unfortunately this confidence and pride has been chipped away by almost 500 years of occupation, pillage, manipulation, oppression and death. That contemporary literature continues to perpetuate the Timoroan as conflict prone, or poor, or fragile, and underdeveloped shows how history serves the strong and the dominant rather than the less strong and more accepting. Timor-Leste is shaped by its history that has taken over the lives of the Timoroan for half a millennium and distracted the Timoroan from its destiny and purpose still being defined today and into the future. One cannot look at the Timoroan and Timor-Leste today without deconstructing what close to 500 years of forced occupation does to a people and the spiritual, ideological, physical and environmental ecology of an island. This thesis approaches the narratives of the Timoroan and Timor-Leste from a purely Timoroan academic perspective and in this regard this thesis looks at the history of colonialism and invasion and its impacts on the Timoroan from the other side of the fence, that is from the side of the Timoroan, from inside-out. This thesis also (de)constructs the Timoroan from the lived experiences and worldviews expressed by the respondents of this research study about what is like to live in cultural context and in contemporary Timor-Leste society and as part of the Timor-Leste Nation-State into the future.

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