If you go to the University of New South Wales you can get a Batchelor of Art and Military Studies. Art and military studies may seem a paradox but Brigadier John Hutcheson, Commander, Joint Task Force 631 in East Timor, likes to juggle chess with military strategy, the role of the warrior with that of the worrier. When he is not being a soldier he is a scholar, and I asked him about his book “Wars of Conscience”. He likes to think – whether in a military think-tank or late at night - and his book attempts to drag military thinking in to the 21st century: “Armies will no longer defend themselves from aggression or seek to expand their country’s territory. More and more it will be like this. A country will choose to get involved in military operations on more ethical grounds.” And what happens if your personal conscience conflicts with the views of your political masters. When I put it to him, he said that, finally a soldier does what he is told. LNL met the Brigadier before, when he commanded the military contingent of RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) in the Solomon Islands. He is the new model. Rather than hurling yourself on a beach in the Dardanelles you wander the world protecting people from a third party threat and perhaps helping with a little nation building.
Our discussion with the Brigadier rounded off a day that was somewhat more optimistic in tone than others. We met young filmmakers at what might grow into a Timorese film school, run by British ex-patriot filmmaker Max Stahl. Max survived the Santa Cruz massacre to bring those horrendous images to world attention – and if there was a moment in recent Timorese history that changes history (Max said “including my own”) it was that. None of us can ever forget the images of fleeing Timorese kids tripping over the headstones as hundreds of them died. Now youngsters of the same age work with Max in learning to make documentary films, and with him are building an impressive archive of urgent historic images.
Another impressive and long term ex-pat was Gabriela Gansser, who hopes her art school will become the foundation of a national art college. Surrounded by the best library I’ve seen in East Timor – a splendid variety of art books from Hieronymus Bosch to Van Gogh - her students were hybridisers mixing traditional Timorese artistic styles with European influences and their results have immense impact. Both Max and Gabriela have been to hell and back in recent times, their respective institutions barely surviving the wide spread burnings. And both their small enterprises have the additional burden of supporting IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons). As well as training their students they have to feed the people who ‘gatecrashed’ their buildings. Their stoicism is remarkable. The one thing that the Brigadier, Max and Gabriela have in common is optimism.
They’re all pretty sure that East Timor is going to make it.
Phillip Adams
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