[TimorLesteStudies] Bringing Helen Mary Hill home

[Deborah Cummins]

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Dear friends,

On behalf of the Timor-Leste organising committee, led by Maun Ego Lemos and other friends, we have set up a fundraising campaign<https://chuffed.org/project/111979-bringing-helen-hill-home> to bring Helen's ashes to Dili, so she can be interred in a place of honour in Santa Cruz cemetery. This is in accordance with her wishes, and has the full support of her family.

The decision to carry this out via individual contributions is an act of love, reflecting the Timorese way of contributing to sacred events via communal giving, and might also be considered a modern version of the very Aussie custom of 'passing around a hat'.

The link to the crowdfunding page is here: https://chuffed.org/project/111979-bringing-helen-hill-home. All donations, large and small, will be greatly appreciated! Description below:

Since she first visited Portuguese Timor as a Masters student in 1975, to drawing her final breath in May 2024, Helen Hill’s heart was with Timor. As a young activist, she was a key player in the international solidarity movement, supporting José Ramos Horta in establishing a diplomatic office in New York, and in bringing the situation in Timor to international attention. Later, in 1998, her Masters thesis was translated to Bahasa Indonesia and became a key reference for Timorese students in Indonesia, helping them to conceptualise their own part in the national liberation struggle. Since the restoration of independence, she consistently worked to promote education as key to people’s empowerment and liberation.

Before she passed, her final request was to listen to Ego Lemos’ “O Timor, O Ha’u-nia Rai.” She wanted her final resting place to be in Timor-Leste, her Rai Doben.

So now we are asking for those who knew her, loved her, admired her—and sometimes fought with her—to pitch in and help bring her ashes back to her final resting place in Dili, Timor-Leste. A place of honour has been prepared for her in Santa Cruz cemetery, a site of special historical significance in Timor-Leste’s fight for independence.

Your donation will be used to pay for a monument in Santa Cruz cemetery, and for a return flight for her brother who will bring her ashes to Dili. Any remaining funds will be invested in a scholarship fund in Helen’s name, in recognition of her long-term commitment to education in Timor-Leste.

All donations, large and small, will be gratefully received.
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