Bio notes

Hugo Fernandes is the Executive Director of the Centro Nacional Chega! I.P. Between 2008 and 2015, he worked at The Asia Foundation, Timor-Leste, as Director of Public Policy and Institutional Strengthening. From 2002 to 2008, he worked as coordinator of the Truth-Seeking Division and co-editor of the final reports of the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) Chega! and the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CVA) of Timor-Leste and Indonesia. Hugo Fernandes was editor of Revista TALITAKUM, of the student resistance movement RENETIL, published in Indonesia, and one of the founding members of the Association of Journalists of Timor Lorosa (AJTL) in 1999. He graduated in Forestry Engineering from Gadjah Mada University in Jogyakarta, Indonesia, and has a postgraduate degree in International Journalism and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Cardiff University, Wales.

Rogério Sávio Ma'aru holds a degree in History from Sanata Dharma University (Indonesia). He is a master's student in Education and Social Movements at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e. He was a researcher at the Comissão de Pesquisa da História da Mulher Timorense between 2014 and 2017. As a consultant for the Ministry of Education, he developed history teaching materials for primary schools in Timor-Leste. Currently, he is working on historical research at the Centro Nacional Chega!, Timor-Leste's memory institute. He has published articles and book chapters on the history of East Timorese women in resistance, curriculum development and scientific research in the field of history in Timor-Leste.

Adelino Gomes worked successively in radio, television (RTP, 1975-1976) and the press for 42 years. On the radio, he was an announcer, newscaster, and reporter at RCP, RR and RDP. Banned by the government from working on the programme Página Um, in which he had commented on the attack on the Munich Olympic Village without passing the article through censorship (6.9.1972), in 1973 he joined the Portuguese-language editorial staff of Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany). He was a member of Público's initial team as main editor. As a reporter, he covered, among many other events of national and international importance, the 25th of April 1974, the first hours of the land invasion of Timor (which he followed from the end of September 1975 until the first years of independence), the moments of decolonisation and the civil war in Angola (July 1975, 1992 and 1994), Gulf Wars I and II (1990/1 and 2003), Afghanistan (2001), and the fall of the Cédras regime in Haiti (1994). He is the author and co-author of books on April 25 and Timor. In his 60s, but still practising his profession, he returned to university, where he studied journalism and sociology.

Zélia Pereira holds a PhD in Information Sciences and Documentation from the University of Évora. She graduated in History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and obtained a Master's in Contemporary Social History from Contemporary Social History from the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa-ISCTE. Since 1997 she has been collaborating on several research projects in the fields of History and Archives. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, between 2018 and 2022 she collaborated on a research project on Timor-Leste's self-determination process. Currently, she is also a collaborating researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History - Universidade Nova de Lisboa and an archivist at the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation.

Estêvão Cabral holds a PhD in Political Science from Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He was an Associate Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University, from October 2002 to September 2005, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, from September 2003 to September 2006 and then an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham. In 2009, he was appointed, as a post-doctoral researcher, to a research project at Tilburg University, The Netherlands, entitled: “Becoming a Nation of Readers in East-Timor: Language policy and adult literacy development in a multilingual context”. His research areas are: the political history of Timor-Leste, literacy campaigns during the years of the Resistance to the Indonesian invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste, and language policy in Timor-Leste.

Fátima Guterres was born in Timor-Leste. On December 7, 1975, when Indonesia invaded Dili, she fled to the mountains. She was the head of the OPMT (Popular Organization of Timorese Women) and Secretary of the COMDOP (Operational Command of FALINTIL). In 1979, she was captured in combat by the Indonesian army AND subjected to imprisonment and torture. In 1987, through the International Red Cross, she managed to come with her family to Portugal. In Portugal, she continues to work in favour of the struggle of the Timorese people. She was vice-secretary of the OPTT (Popular Organization of Timorese Workers) and collaborated, from 1989 to 1998, in the Timor-Leste Days at the University of Porto. She takes part in debates and seminars throughout the country. In 1997, she took part in the 8th International Conference on Women and Health in Rio de Janeiro and in a series of debates and conferences in São Paulo. Author of several books, especially the autobiographical book Timor - Paraíso Violentado (2014) and Naha Mauk, Os Dias Eram Assim (2023).

Bernardina Alves was born in Timor-Leste. She took refuge in the mountains when the Indonesian army invaded on December 7, 1975. In the resistance, she was the coordinator and General Assistant of OPMT, having worked with President Nicolau Lobato in the resistance. She was captured and arrested by the Indonesian military. She was able to leave Timor with her family through the International Red Cross. In Portugal, she took part in and contributed with her testimonies to the struggle for Timor's independence in meetings with national and international solidarity groups.

Lídia Araújo is a native of Timor-Leste. She fled to the mountains during the Indonesian invasion on December 7, 1975. In the resistance, she was the head of OPMT. During the 78/79 siege and annihilation, she was captured by Indonesian troops during a raid and imprisoned for three years. During this period, she was obliged to report three times a week at INTEL, Indonesian Intelligence Services. She came to Portugal in 1990 with her husband, who had been arrested in Jakarta, through the International Red Cross and Amnesty International. In Portugal, she contributed to the struggle for Timor-Leste's independence with solidarity groups.

Luís Costa was born in 1945, in Fatu-Berliu, Timor-Leste. He studied Humanities and Philosophy in Évora and Theology in Leiria. Ordained a priest in December 1973, and in November 1974 he returned to Timor and was placed in the Ossú mission. From January 1976 to March 79 he was in the mountains with the resistance. He has been a member, since 1984, of the Fretilin Committee in the Diaspora, collaborating on activities for the Timorese cause. He is a Professor of Tetum and Timorese culture, researcher, and author of works such as Dicionário Tetum-Português (2000), Guia da Conversação Português-Tetum (2001), Borja da Costa - Selecções de Poemas (2010), Língua Tetum: Contributos para uma Gramática (2015) and Ué-Lenas - Lenda de Timor Lorosa’e (2018).

Lúcio Sousa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Management at the Open University (UAb). Researcher at the Institute of Literature and Tradition Studies (IELT-FCSH-UNL) and external associate researcher at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University - Toronto. PhD in Social Anthropology from UAb (2010) with a thesis on the ritual practice and social organization among a Bunak-speaking community in the Bobonaro district of Timor-Leste. Research on Timor-Leste focuses on ritual practices and citizenship, ethnography in a colonial context and cultural policies. Since 2011, he has been teaching and researching forced migration and refugees - the subject of his master's thesis, in 1999.

Marisa Ramos Gonçalves is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, a fellow (CEEC-IND) of the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and a professor in a doctoral program at CES/FEUC. She received her doctorate from the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong in the area of history and human rights. She is currently working on the research project "Transnational histories of solidarity in the south - researching 'other' knowledges and struggles for rights across the Indian Ocean", in Timor-Leste and Mozambique (CEEC-IND). Her work focuses on the intersections between history and memory, post-colonial studies, education, and knowledge systems in the Global South, particularly in Timor-Leste and the Asia-Pacific region, and she has published on several topics.