All in the Family is a new CD created in solidarity with East Timor. GIL SANTOS, who was part of the project, explains how it came about.
This monster of a project had its genesis 18 months ago when a few of us who play at parties and fundraising events for East Timor somehow ended up in the SBS recording studios at 8pm one night to remake the old Rose Tattoo classic "We Can't be Beaten" for release on tape.
Well into the night, we surprised ourselves by recording a completely unrehearsed song in Tetum (our language in East Timor) which calls for unity from fellow Timorese around the world. That became Side B of the tape. Six months later, we could not believe it. We had sold 1000 copies.
At the time it seemed a fairly disorganised adventure, but looking back I realise there were a number of dedicated professionals really applying themselves. David Bridle is an inspired producer, drummer Colin Buckley from Painters and Dockers certainly sharpened our rhythms, Rachael Kerr couldn't be beaten as an imitation ABC newsreader, and none of it would have happened without Paul Stewart's mental, emotional and vocal energy.
Twelve months later, in the Year of the Family, I expected to be squeezing my studies in with political work, as we've been doing for 20 years now. So it came as a pleasant surprise when Paul Stewart rang to say many Australian rock bands had offered to contribute material for a compilation album to raise funds for East Timor, and would I help him get it together.
Young Timorese in Australia are like everyone else — we follow our favourite bands. But I didn't imagine that the musicians who contributed to All in the Family would know or care about my country — Midnight Oil, Crowded House, Frente!, Archie Roach, Third Eye, Not Drowning Waving, Killjoys, Things of Stone and Wood, the Blackeyed Susans Trio, Weddings Parties Anything, Tiddas, Overnight Jones, Afterglow, Painters and Dockers, the Bo-Weevils, Cosmic Psychos, Jeannie Marsh, Nicole Quilter and the Choir of Faith and Hope.
It seems that our new CD has every style of music ever written; techno, rave, rock, pop, acoustic, a cappella, grunge, traditional and even opera!
As we mastered the tape, I thought of all my friends at home in Dili; wonderful young musicians, who have to spend their time fighting and hiding from brutalised soldiers and vicious foreign bureaucrats. The Indonesian government has always known that the East Timorese are musically talented and, as part of their strategy to win the hearts and minds of the young, provides them with equipment and recording facilities in Dili.
Our desperately hungry friends and cousins are promised wealth and fame, but are not free to write and sing what they want. During the last 20 years the regime has executed many Timorese pop stars, poets and song writers — Borja Da Costa, Filomena Alves and Manecas Exposto among others — whose music, although officially banned, is legendary and continues to inspire.
In Dili it would not be permitted to record a CD such as All in the Family, and anyone discovered doing so would "disappear" or be sent to re-education camps. East Timorese schoolchildren, our future song writers and poets, are allowed to learn only Indonesian music and must recite Indonesian poems every day. However, the young in East Timor are determined continue to assert their right to freedom of expression.
I was astounded when Martin Cooke from Mushroom Distribution Services suggested that the first track on All in the Family belonged to our own Abrantes Mariano, an 80-year-old custodian of traditional East Timorese music and culture. This charismatic gentleman was born in East Timor in 1918 (he thinks) and as far back as he can remember his family had been distinguished musicians and drum-makers.
As a young child he listened to the music Timorese boys played while shepherding their goats; they taught him their tunes and how to make flutes from bamboo. When he turned 12 his family elders taught him to make the drums which were traditional in structure and design to his clan; as his craftsmanship matured, people walked or rode their ponies from all over East Timor to buy his instruments.
Because of his family's long tradition as musical custodians, many of his instruments were made for traditional religious rituals and were kept in the village Uma Lulik or sacred house, which has now been destroyed. During the troubled period prior to Indonesia's invasion, Abrantes Mariano was employed by the Portuguese administration as a cavalry corporal, and was evacuated with other government employees to Portugal.
Like many Timorese, he came to live in Australia, from where, he says, "Sometimes you can smell East Timor on the wind from the sea". He is certain that East Timorese traditional culture will survive the brutal Indonesian occupation, as it did 500 years of Portuguese colonialism, but feels it is his role to continue to teach willing young Timorese in the diaspora the knowledge, craftsmanship and spiritual traditions he inherited.
On All in the Family, Abrantes Mariano plays a traditional tune on a long bamboo flute known as fafulo. It is called "Oan Kiak" or "Poor Child", which is appropriate as proceeds from the CD's sales are creating the Oan Kiak Education Scholarship for orphans.
Prior to 1975, orphanages were unknown in East Timor. If my uncle died, then my father was automatically responsible for my aunt's welfare and my cousin's education. Now it's different: East Timor has three orphanages run by the Catholics. The scholarships will play a huge role in our future by increasing the number of East Timorese who will receive a secondary education.
Another feature of All in the Family is the Midnight Oil recording of "Kolele Mai" and its transition down through the ages. Originally it was part of a Makasae funeral ritual called hader mate (the waking of the dead). In the '70s the lyrics were reinterpreted by one of Timor's most popular poets, Francisco Borja da Costa, and it was used as a rallying call during the early years of political activity in East Timor. In 1991 the melody and rhythm were further energised by the Timorese Xanana Choir in Sydney, when it collaborated with Midnight Oil to produce the version now heard on All in the Family.
I'm looking forward to copies of All in the Family being taken into East Timor. Unlike young Australians, most Timorese don't have CD players, and I'm working hard to buy some portables so that my friends can hear how much support in Australia there is for their struggle. I'm certain it will reinforce the courage they need to face the terrible hunger and torture they endure as part of our struggle to win freedom. I salute the musicians and the Australian rock industry for their gesture of solidarity in compiling All in the Family.