Reflection As An Atoin Meto

www.twitter.com/sandrafrans

I was asked by Dicky, a closest friend of mine and also the founder of Lakoat Kujawas, to write something about Timor from a perspective of an Atoin Meto¹ who is currently studying in Australia. Moving to Melbourne from SoE, South Central Timor, clearly makes me always comparing the situation here in there. My Taiwanese teacher at the University of Melbourne once said that for international students, being in a foreign country will make us to reflect a lot. Students do learn much about their country themselves when they are abroad. They will realise the uniqueness of things that used to be taken for granted in their home. I undoubtedly agree with him. Even until 1.5 years here, I still do reflections. I write some in my personal blogs as well. Because I am here not only to pursue my degree but also to learn about life, about people, and about nature. In this article, I will write about two personal thoughts linked to Lakoat Kujawas (future) projects.

The first one is the power of exchange knowledge. Last year, I lived in a flat with a senior lecturer of my university. He used to encourage me to attend many public lectures, held mostly by the university. He said, one of the nicest things you get in Melbourne is you will find it is so easy to access knowledge. All the public lectures are free. And it’s not only for students and staffs but it is open for public. I really enjoy to attend those seminars. Some are about health and public health. Some are about things that are not really related to my study, such as history, politics, physics and science. Even sometimes I couldn’t understand all contents. But it’s not the point to absorb all materials. It is about open my mind to all useful information and knowledge. Because at the end of the day, every thing is connected each other. For instance, you cannot speak about health services without involving the economic development. Moreover, by attending public lectures, I am just expanding my networks. I met a lot of incredible people from these events.

This free public lecture experience is a totally new for me. In Indonesia, there may no such thing as free (well, I am exaggerating things). But seriously, free seminar is really rare. I know a friend, who ever said that even if they want to hold a free seminar in a university, it takes so long and complicated bureaucracy. And probably sometimes they should pay for the room and for the permission.

I reckon that sharing knowledge is really important. This world is moving so fast. If we are not trying hard to catch valuable information, we are just left behind. By learning more and more everyday, it will open our mind, shape our perspective and make us a better person. And we don’t have to come to Melbourne to make it happens. We surely can do it now in Timor. In Forum SoE Peduli (a local non-profit organization in SoE), we have tried to start this idea of exchange knowledge. We ever made several seminars in various topics. And we will be more than happy to collaborate with Lakoat Kujawas. There are a lot of potential human resources from SoE. We can invite academics, practitioners, entrepreneurs, students, social workers, public servants, and public in general to come and discuss about one topic each meeting. Of course we also need people, who are expert in this topic to lead the conversation. So the talking will be based on evidence. The main point here is we learn from each other. It only needs commitment and consistency from the event makers. I think, this simple move will lead to a good change in the future.

The second reflection I want to share here is how Australian agencies make the most of their natural resources for example, tourism destinations. Couple months ago I traveled to Great Ocean Road (GOR) with a tour bus. GOR is on of the highlight tourism attraction in Victoria. It is a long road, built by world war veterans. The key destination of GOR is to see 12 Apostles, which are stones standing at the side of the oceans. Unfortunately, they are only seven or eight (but mind the catchy name, that actually not to connected with the history of the stones J). During the trip, we stopped at almost ten stops to take a rest or simply just take a picture. I cannot say it was an incredible journey though. But I really appreciate how they make each place becomes special. The access is really good. They provide explanation board in every stop, and even the driver bus is communicative. I learn some important things from him. Such as, how indigenous people think a Koala is an ‘evil’ creature, because Koalas always sleep, but they can alive. When I was at this trip, i remembered Timor island a lot. The beach scenery along the GOR journey was cool. But Kolbano beach scenery was cooler. When I saw the 12 apostles, I remembered the great Fatu’un at Kolbano. Fatu’un is much more enormous than these stones. And don’t forget all the giant stones at Fatumnasi. They are just so incredible. Our government just still doesn’t think it as a historical and great natural phenomenon.

Well, I might be wrong to make a comparison between the places. The place is never wrong, we are humans, who take responsibilities to these places may be. Here, Lakoat Kujawas (and all of the Atoin Meto) can play an important role to respect and to introduce our beautiful natural resources. However, let’s make it gentle. Don’t be too rush to over promote those innocent lands, forests, mountains, and beaches without a proper preparation. Because as we are all aware, they are so many greed people out there, who are secretly (or even really) looking at new territory for their own businesses. We obviously don’t want to be like the mainstream tourism destination in Indonesia, where the lands are owned by foreigners. So, let’s empower our local people to make them realise that we are so blessed with this nature. And it is us, who take responsibilities to sustain these resources. It is us who know our lands better.

I just want to add something about my GRO trip. When we arrived at those stops, I never saw the staff there. Almost all stops are free. Everyone can access it. And there is no staff who guard the place from (naughty) visitors who let’s say will write with marker ‘Sandra and Yosua, forever’ at the walls. So, basically, people can do whatever they want to do. The nice thing is there is (almost) no rubbish. The places are clean. They provide rubbish bins for sure. The walls, the benches, and everything are clean as well. And every tourist consciously takes care of their own rubbish. Well, I reckon it’s about habit. In Indonesia, we put attention seriously about cleanliness in our home. People even sweep every single leave at their ground. However, once they reach public areas or places that are not theirs, people do not care anymore. They throw away the candy wrap on the ground and so forth. So, the simple act we can do now is how to pay respect to our natural resources. We need to treat the land as our own home, and indeed this is our home. By doing this, we will feel more attach to this land, and it will lead us to be more ‘protective’. We then may feel the eager to learn more about our land. And then together we can empower our surroundings so in the future, it will become a beautiful tourism destination, powered by local people.

So, these are two points about living in Australia, from the academic side and also from the tourism side. When I read the proposal of Lakoat Kujawas projects, I saw hope. This is a dream that comes true, to see Timor from a new perspective, not a land full of social problems, but a land full of rich natural and human resources. Together we can enrich each other. I am looking forward for collaborating with Lakoat Kujawas in projects, such as public seminars, building library, travel promotions, or even in my area about health education. Keep moving forward!

Greetings from The cold, windy and rainy Melbourne.

(Sandra Frans, A medical doctor and an activist at Forum Soe Peduli, who is studying master of Public health, focusing on Women’s health and social science at the University of Melbourne). 

¹ Atoin Meto: (Dawanese language referring to people who come from Timor)