"To me Dili was a really nice place, very peaceful. Everyone was free, living life without much planning for the future", Timorese painter Sebastiao Silva recalls his home, which he left behind in 1984, prior to the Indonesian invasion.
It is this tranquillity Silva has sought to capture in his Melbourne exhibition, "Cultural Survival: through the eyes of an artist", in contrast to the war and famine which followed the invasion in 1975. "Most of the things I put on my canvas are the things I can recall from my memories ... they reflect my childhood."
Silva, 30, was born in Dili. He grew up in a large family of farmers and attended missionary college from a young age. Following the invasion, he attended the Externato S. Jose in Dili, a school run by missionaries.
"The school was the heart of the clandestine resistance", says Sebastiao. People resisted the oppressors in many ways, "by not accepting what the Indonesians tell them to do, by helping the guerillas and educating their children that it is right to resist".
His decision to leave Dili was not taken easily, "because I had to leave my family there". However, increasing persecution by Indonesian forces and the generally oppressive situation in Dili motivated him to finally escape to Portugal in 1984.
"In Portugal, friends encouraged me to paint and I did two paintings ... but to live in Portugal without any support was hard." He found himself at odds with the Timorese community there who had left in 1975 and did not experience Indonesian rule. In Timorese tradition, painting was done on ceramics, sculptures and textiles. Quite a few Timorese artists have only recently taken up painting on canvas.
After having lived in Portugal for a year, Sebastiao migrated to Australia. "I did not think about painting when I came to Australia. I had to go to school to learn English and look for a job, because I didn't have rights to government benefits in the first year."
Now he has decided to paint as a career. He recognises that this is a difficult transition, but is prepared to make the sacrifice to enable him to concentrate on painting. His art is testimony to the strength of Timorese culture, one under siege and yet at the same time a culture of resistance.
"Cultural survival: through the eyes of an artist" is at the Steps Gallery, 62 Lygon Street, Carlton South, until April 16.
[This article is based on an interview by Jan Bartlett, presenter of 3CR's Hometime.]