Ukun Rasik A’an: indigenous self-determined development and peacebuilding in Timor-Leste
Date
2016
Authors
Close, Sophia Catherine Isabelle
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Abstract
After decades of international activism by Indigenous peoples,
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (the Declaration) was endorsed by the United Nations (UN)
General Assembly in 2007. The Declaration affirms the Indigenous
right to self-determination and promotes development as a primary
tool to implement this right peacefully and sustainably. My
research explores the extent to which the current development
system in Timor-Leste can support the implementation of
Indigenous self-determination.
Timor-Leste is a conflict-affected Indigenous society with a long
history of colonialism and violence. Since 1999, when the East
Timorese people exercised their right to self-determination in a
UN-sponsored ballot, the country has been impacted by numerous
international development and peacebuilding interventions with
mixed outcomes.
I specifically appraise perceptions of international development
and peacebuilding interventions that have taken place in
Timor-Leste since 1999, and undertake a comprehensive complex
systems analysis of the root causes of violence and Indigenous
peacebuilding practices in Timor-Leste. I argue that the current
development system, rather than building peace, creates further
structural and cultural violence because it overlooks or does not
value or empower Indigenous knowledge systems or peacebuilding
practices. I find that international practitioners have
structural and cultural barriers that prevent them from engaging
with Indigenous knowledge systems.
My research demonstrates that East Timorese people have strong
Indigenous knowledge systems, deeply linked to land, place and
kinship networks. Indigenous East Timorese people seek to find
balance within their complex and plural knowledge systems, which
are envisioned as ukun rasik a’an or self-determination and
peace.
I used an ethnographic ‘listening’ methodology to undertake
field research between 2009 and 2013 with around ninety East
Timorese and international development and peacebuilding
practitioners, and used abductive methods to analyse this data.
Using primary and secondary sources I identify three main themes
embedded in Indigenous East Timorese knowledge systems:
• Culture / lulik: a plural system of cosmological and secular
unity expressed through cultural practices and rituals;
• Power / lisan: a governance system grounded in the balancing
of power dynamics through cultural practices; and
• Relationships / slulu: the primacy of localised
relationship-based land, place and kinship systems.
Drawing on the experiences of East Timorese and international
practitioners I provide guiding principles or practical
recommendations for practitioners to use to transform the
identified root causes of violence in Timor-Leste and implement
Indigenous self-determined development, grounded in free, prior
and informed consent. My research contributes to the ongoing
critique of development and liberal peacebuilding through the use
of complex systems theory and the prioritisation of Indigenous
peacebuilding approaches and Indigenous knowledge systems.
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Keywords
peace, peacebuilding, conflict, violence, Indigenous, self-determination, self-determined development, Timor-Leste, development, sustainable development
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