Christmas in East Timor
St Cecilia's Choir, Dili
Mary McKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies
$20, plus postage and handling. To order, phone (02) 9623 2847 or visit <http://www.mmiets.org.au>.
REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN
The Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2004. A key aspect of its work has been assisting the Catholic Church in East Timor in literacy education, particularly through the Tetum language.
To raise funds for St Cecilia's Choir in Dili, the Mary MacKillop Institute has produced a Christmas CD. Seven of the carols are well-known, such as "Silent Night" and "Noel, Noel", and are all sung in Tetun. There are two in Latin, and the others are traditional Timorese carols. One was written by the young conductor, Adriano Santos, and most of the arrangements are by Paulo Pereira, the choir director. The last carol, "We wish you a merry Christmas", is sung in Tetum, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and English.
Sister Susan Connelly, who was involved in the CD's production, told Green Left Weekly: "I had heard the carols being sung 12 months ago and said to the choir that if they recorded them I would get the CD produced in Sydney and would ensure that they got the proceeds. I then forgot all about it. On my return in February this year, one of the sisters said, 'I hope you're ready for the CD'. I said, 'What CD?' The kids had practised six nights a week from October 2003 to February 2004 and after a bit of wheeling and dealing they went along to Radio Timor-Leste and got themselves recorded, and I duly did my bit."
From Green Left Weekly, December 15, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.