Last Thursday, Mornington Peninsula Friends of Lospalos and Mornington Peninsula Shire hosted a reading event for the book 'From Timor-Leste to Australia: Seven families, three generations tell their stories'.
The book shares the stories of seven East Timorese families now living in Melbourne. These families were forced to leave their homeland between 1975 and 1999, as they faced the devastating consequences of conflicts arising from disputes over land, resources, and power.
We were fortunate to be joined by the author of the book and President of the Friends of Ermera, Jan Trezise, along with Lynne Moller, who were both pivotal in collating and documenting the stories from the families. This years-long process also involved 25 students from Gleneagles Secondary College in Endeavour Hills, who assisted in the interviewing process.
The event included readings from Pedro Baptista and Jose Florindo, who are from two of the seven families featured in the book. They both shared their own inspiring stories of fleeing from Timor-Leste and the lessons they learned throughout their journeys.
If you'd like to purchase the book, you can do so online here.
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