TRAVERSE 173
TRAVEL- TIMOR-LESTE
LEIGH WILKINS
A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD
Resonating across the valley, the sounds of drums, steel and hide, signalled something special was about to occur. The occasional wail, in time with the clash of steel, seemed hidden behind a wall of men in traditional attire, stomping rhythmically in time with the beat of the hide drums. From our vantage point, in the shadow of Mount Rabilau, it felt as if we are being warned and yet somehow welcomed to a world well out of reach of ours.
Betel nut-stained mouths smiled enthusiastically as we made our way down the hillside and into a small area of residence. Flanked by thatched dwellings, a proud totem stood watch, the entrance to a kingdom, a community in touch with the past and the present, to the spiritual and the being.
This was a community named from the famed mountain, Rabilau, a community of the Mambae people, those of Timor-Leste whose traditions are being kept alive in a world so very quickly changing around them.
The Mambae is the second largest of the Timorese ethnic groups within this newest of Asian island nations. We were somewhere between the provincial towns of Maubisse and Same, a region heavily populated by the Mambae. In fact, the Mambae are the second largest ethnic group in Timor-Leste yet are concentrated to a region of the central-West.
The chanting crescendoed as we approached before coming to a sudden halt. Encouraged to clasp the hand of those next to us we’ d formed a line and faced off with those opposite. It never felt confrontational yet there had been a presence of power in the atmosphere. The music began once again and the men skipped toward us, we followed suite stepping backward. It repeated numerous
TRAVERSE 173