Maliana – (15th November 2023), the Ninth Constitutional Government through the Ministry of Youth for Arts and Culture, Secretariat of States for Arts and Culture, and Centro Nacional Chega! I.P. organized the 2023 Border Festival with the theme “Cultural Exchange to Strengthen Reconciliation.”

The Secretariat of States for Arts and Culture (SSAC/SEAK), HE. Jorge Soares Cristovão said that the 2023 Border Festival is the Ninth Government Program specifically realized in the Borderline between Timor-Leste and Indonesia and the Administrative Post of Maliana, Bobonaro.

SSAC stated that the Border Festival is the strategy to secure the diversities, acknowledge artistic and cultural elements, respect the geography of both countries, Timor-Leste and Indonesia, and increase the cooperation on artistic and cultural exchanges with other nations and international organizations in the sense of promoting culture and heritage of Timor-Leste.

The Border Festival is also the strategy for learning and training our national cultural art and the institution of cultural producers.

All of us acknowledge the past. We experienced darkness and bitter incidents. It becomes a history of our lives. The past incidents are to be our national histories belonging to both countries. 

The past incidents forced us to choose options for our lives. It forced us to leave our families, friends, traditions, and cultures – we went and lived with different families and friends, traditions and cultures. It was the consequences of war, desire or not – it is a part of the history of our lives. 

That situation made us sad but did not defeat the tradition and culture as tradition and culture which our ancestors kept for our lives as people of Timor-Leste. We strengthen as the Timorese even if it was within hardship and dangerous situations, not afraid to confirm the culture and the traditions.

“Today, people from both countries are here participating in the Border Festival together to prove that war did not defeat our identified cultural identity since we were born in this world. There is no border to culture as long as a cultural diplomatic approximation will benefit effectively communities from both countries who live on the borderlines”, said SSAC in the opening ceremony of the 2023 Border Festival in Maliana, Bobonaro. 

Therefore, he highlighted that the border festival as a special event provides opportunities and moments full of friendship and sharing thoughts and desires on traditions or norms as the potency gathers us as one community and only one people who come from identical places where we came.

“The Ninth Constitutional Government places importance on the policy of the preservation, conservation, and promotion of cultures and arts of the Timor-Leste. This event is considered an essential program created between people from both countries, willing and forced to preserve the ancient traditions and cultures of the ancestors and open spaces for the artistic capacity to lead the cultural and artistic across borders potentiality”, he informed.  

Therefore, on behalf of the Ninth Government, thank the Indonesian Government and its authority for integrating and supporting us straight or un-straight to be here. This cooperation proves that the past is a page of struggle between both countries. In the spirit of reconciliation and friendship, we write another new page of the history in each of us, the community, and the nation to prove that culture and arts take us together to defeat political and social differences.

In this opportunity, also thank all parties involved in this activity, such as the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Ministry of State Administration, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Public Service, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Ministry of the Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in particular, Consulate Timor-Leste in Kupang and Atambua supported this festival for the realization.

To the Bobonaro Municipal Authority, “I thank you for your cooperation in supporting conducted this event. I wish we keep thriving in cooperation and conduct activities to preserve and foster our culture in the border territory.

Finally, I thank the parents for having an exhibition on local products and arts.

(Media CNC)