Map 3: Baguia Sub-district and its ten suco.
49 Located in Baucau District, Baguia Sub-district comprises 20,720 square kilometres.20 The
administrative headquarters of Baguia Sub-district are located in Baguia Villa. Baguia consists of ten settlements (suco, suku, T): Afaloicai, Alawa Craik, Alawa Leten, Defawasi, Hae Coni, Larisula, Lavateri, Osso Huna, Samalari and Uacala. Each suco forms an administrative unit akin to villages, which comprise various hamlets (aldeia, T). The term for clan or family group (wa, M; knua, T) is also used to describe the land of origin to which a person and their family belong. It represents the place of one’s ancestral origins and is a common site for the location of the clan’s oma falu and burial site (rate, M, T).21 Identity in Makasae society, within and
beyond the clan, is based on membership in a specific lineage house. The origin of one’s genealogy is the clan, source, trunk or base (sala fu, fu, M; umakain, T).
The Makasae are primarily small land-holders and subsistence farmers who grow crops for local consumption.22 Tropical trees provide fruits and lontar palms (Borassus flabellifer, L;
akadiru, M, T) are tapped for local wine. Wet rice is cultivated in low-land, terraced fields.
Cash crops include the collection of betelnut (boe, M; bua, mama, T; Areca catechu) and candlenuts (sae, M; kami, T) for oil manufacture. Livestock, such as pigs, goats, chickens and buffalo, are raised as exchange goods and for sacrifices and feasting.
20 Armindo da Silva, Perfil Distriktu Baucau, edited by Instituto Nacional de Linguistica (Dili: INL –
Universidade Naçional Timor-Leste), 2008, 38.
21 These graves, made of stone, are often referred to as graves for animists (jentiu, T). The word jentiu is often
qualified by the explanation, ‘those people that were not baptised’.
22 Crops consist of corn (teli, M; batar, T), cassava (ate sia, M; ai farina, T), taro (luka, M; talas, T), sweet potato
(sia, M; fehuk midar, T), green-leaf vegetables (kobe, M; mustarda, T), arrowroot (dicia, M; kontas mutin, T) and beans (utadili, M; koto, T).
50
Map 4: Baguia Sub-district and its ten suco and various aldeia noted in this thesis.
Source: Map by CartoGIS Services, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.
The Makasae year is structured by seasonal cycles. The monsoon season commences in November and continues until April and is dominated by agricultural activity ensuring crops
51 and foodstuffs. With the onset of rain, crops are planted including the first corn crop of the year.23 Seeds are prepared in January for planting in February.24 In February and March, the
fields and terraces are tilled with the assistance of buffalo, ploughs and hand-held metal digging sticks.25 The second corn crop is planted in the low lands, whilst beans are planted
in the mountainous areas.26 The annual rice crop is sown in March or April and the corn
crop is harvested usually in April.27
Figure 1.3: ‘Reisfelder bei Baaguia’ (Rice fields near Baguia).
Source: Museum der Kulturen Basel, MKB IIc(F) 1326. Photograph by Dr Alfred Bühler, 1935.
23 Tele silu, M, is the term used to describe the planting of the crops. 24 Tele koe, M, is the term used to describe the preparation of the seeds.
25 Terraced fields are known as kabubu, T. See the digging stick, MKB IIc 6627, which Bühler listed as a Grabstock, G; ossodia, M, ai suak, T.
26 These areas include Afaloicai, Osso Huna and Hae Coni.
27 Harvest of the rice crop is known as sama haree, T; harvest of the corn crop is known as teli was siri, M; silu batar, T.
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Figure 1.4: Terraced fields in Baguia Sub-district, 2014.
During the dry season between August until October, agricultural activity continues together with the construction and maintenance of ceremonial houses and gravesites, and the performance of ceremonies. Beans are harvested during August and September. Betelnut is harvested, skinned, dried, skewered and sold throughout the dry season. The rice harvest and the second corn harvest occur towards the end of the dry season. The fields are then burnt off before the rains arrive and planting commences again in November. Food security can be an issue during this season in Baguia.28
As documented by Bühler, the local economy of Baguia in 1935 revolved around weekly market days, which continue today.29 In addition to foodstuffs, other local produce is
occasionally sold nowadays, including handwoven textiles and locally smithed machetes. Canned and packet foodstuffs are plentiful, as are manufactured goods including domestic utensils, tools and gardening equipment, and commercially printed cloths imported from China and Indonesia. An active market in foreign second-hand clothing exists. A barter system of goods continues in Baguia although this has largely been usurped by a cash
28 Arara, M, is the term used when food is scarce, usually towards the end of the dry season.
29 Weekly markets are held as follows: Thursday at Lafatere, Friday at Laka Gua in Alawa Craik and Saturday
53 economy.30 In 2014 stock is carried by foot or motorbike from Baguia Villa to outlying
markets. Alternatively, people sell local produce and other groceries at makeshift road-side stalls and home kiosks.31 Local carpentry workshops and ‘fuel stops’ are scattered sparingly
along the road-side.
Figure 1.5: ‘Markt in Baaguia’ (Market in Baguia).
Source: Museum der Kulturen Basel, MKB (F)IIc 1172. Photograph by Dr Alfred Bühler, 1935.
30 The US dollar is the official currency of Timor-Leste.
31 Kiosks set up at the front of houses sell fruit, vegetables, bottled water, packets of noodles, sacks of rice,
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Figure 1.6: Laka Gua market, Alawa Craik, Baguia Sub-district, 1 August 2014.
Rural poverty and lack of facilities in Timor-Leste remain high due to ‘low returns in agriculture and limited non-farm livelihood opportunities, as well as limited access to basic social services (e.g. education, health and water) and infrastructure (e.g. markets and roads)’.32
Baguia is no exception. National census data suggest that Baguia has a dominant youth demographic, with 60 per cent of the population aged beneath 25 years.33 Youth
unemployment is a major issue, with an increasing flow of young people to urban centres seeking employment and tertiary study. Seven secondary schools and 35 primary schools in Baguia reflect the national educational and school enrolment statistics.34 Baguia Villa includes
32 International Labour Office, “Timor-Leste: Decent Work Country Programme, 2008–2013,” 2007, 5.
<http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/program/dwcp/download/timorleste.pdf>. Accessed 16 April 2017.
33 Indexmundi statistics, “Timor-Leste National Demographics Profile 2016.” Indexmundi states that
approximately 41.3 per cent of Baguia community is 0–14 years of age and 20.11 per cent are 15–24 years of age. <http://www.indexmundi.com/timor-leste/age_structure.html>. Accessed 16 April 2017.
34 Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Government, “Strategic Development Plan Timor-Leste 2011–
2030,” 15. <http://timor-leste.gov.tl/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Timor-Leste-Strategic-Plan-2011- 20301.pdf>. Accessed 16 April 2017. A total of seven secondary schools are in Baguia: two Catholic, four government and one independent school (Fundasaun Satelus). There is a total of 35 primary schools and kindergartens: ten Catholic and 25 government-operated. National student enrolment figures in 2014 were as follows:
Primary: 6–11 years – 242,000
Lower-secondary: 12–14 years – 63,000 Secondary: 15–17 years – 45,000.
55 a health clinic, a police station, and the EBC Sao Jose Bosco Catholic Church operated by the Salesianos Order; there is a private guesthouse, and a single volleyball court provides a well-patronised recreational venue in the town centre.
Figure 1.7: Baguia Villa, as people leave a local volleyball match, 2014.
Figure 1.8: Baguia Villa, 2014.
Education Policy and Data Centre, “Timor-Leste National Education Profile 2014 Update,” 1.
https://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/EPDC%20NEP_Timor%20Leste.pdf. Accessed 30 August 2017.
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Baguia is geographically remote by Timorese standards, with little infrastructure and exceptionally poor roads. Access to Baguia is often difficult during the monsoonal season due to heavy rains, flooding rivers and damaged roads. Diminutive Timor ponies, harnessed, continue to transport goods into the mountains using simple rig and saddlery, examples of which were acquired by Bühler, but increasingly motorbikes are replacing the ponies. The majority of people, however, walk mountain tracks to gardens, markets, schools, workplaces, churches and homes. Local accounts indicate that Makasae people walk over 20 kilometres to exercise garden rights. Privately owned trucks transport people and goods between Baguia and Viqueque, Baucau and Dili.
Communications beyond Baguia are largely via mobile telephone networks. Internet access is intermittent but the vast majority of the population does not own a television, let alone a computer, while phones are owned by most households. For those households fortunate to have electricity, it is primarily used for lighting. Other electrical appliances, such as whitegoods, are not commonplace as people cook on open fires or hot plates. The free-of- charge electricity supply is regularly disrupted where it is provided in central parts of Baguia, whilst outlying areas use private generators for electricity, if at all.
Baguia Sub-district is geographically isolated from centres of power and trade routes with little infrastructure changing the broad socio-economic dynamics of the area since Bühler’s visit in 1935. The Makasae continue to practise subsistence farming with the majority of young adults being ‘unemployed’ or relocating to Dili in pursuit of employment or tertiary study. Since Bühler’s visit in 1935, changes such as the provision of electricity and more widespread telecommunications have transformed certain aspects of daily life in Baguia, but most other aspects remain unaltered. People in Baguia still work, live and struggle with the natural elements in order to survive.