Culture, Country and Carbon: An exchange across the Timor Sea (Wai Mata Films, 18 mins: English/Tetum)
This film examines the experience of two Indigenous communities, from Timor-Leste and Australia, who are involved in carbon trading schemes. Foregrounding the Indigenous governance, labour and more-than-human care involved in the schemes’ planting of trees and management of fire, the film makes visible the capacities, skills and customary structures on which these locally produced environmental markets depend. It encourages viewers to question why some forms of governance and labour are made or remain invisible and unvalued, and suggests new ways of thinking about the work, care and responsibility underpinning such schemes.
While the exchange between these Timorese and Australian Indigenous community members is grounded in the shared experience of violent and oppressive colonial legacies, both groups are now focussed on the socio-cultural and environmental repair of their communities. Despite vastly different postcolonial circumstances, broadly shared Indigenous governance practices underpin their ongoing struggles over land, resources, food, language, and cultural recognition. In this context, carbon markets are valued as one way of enabling Indigenous wellbeing and potentially increasing the outside value and recognition given to Indigenous governance processes.