 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
A Woman of Independence
By Kirsty Sword Gusmao
Macmillan $30.00
 This improbable love story began when human rights activist Kirsty Sword visited Indonesia's then-province of East Timor fifteen years after its brutal annexation. A linguist at university - usefully, Indonesian was a major - she arrived in Dili to see for herself the territory from where news had to be smuggled abroad by activists or officials of the Catholic Church.
'Dili's hotels were teeming with spies whose mission it was to keep a close eye on the activities and movements of foreign guests. The assumption was that outsiders were either friends of the resistance (and therefore troublemakers) or human rights activists bent on uncovering the facts of Indonesia's fifteen year rule of terror.'
Despite hearing some harrowing stories, 'My love for Indonesia was neither diminished nor compromised by my growing awareness of conditions... the enemy of East Timor - oppression and military abuse of power - was also the scourge of Indonesian society.'
In Jakarta, where she took up work for an Australian aid agency, she came into contact with Xanana Gusmao, the East Timor guerrilla leader who had been arrested and transferred to Indonesian jails. She had first heard his name in Melbourne when helping to translate and circulate his messages from the jungle frontline.
'Xanana was so highly respected by the Timorese that his words were regarded almost as gospel,' she recalls of the man, who, a decade later and soon to become East Timor's head of state, would be her husband.
Sword corresponded with the charismatic leader, receiving letters in a mix of English and Portuguese praising her 'patriotic fervour' and, in time, expressing his affection.
Just before Christmas 1994, she met the famous prisoner, conscious only of Xanana's eyes fixed on hers, and 'the pressure of his hand in my hand... I heard his voice whisper to the floor 'Querida, bem-vinda' [Welcome, Darling]'.
The rest is history and it starts where the book does, in May 2002 when East Timor received its freedom from the UN transitional force that supervised the militia-marred referendum.
Pictured on the official podium, beside the UN's Kofi Annan and Indonesia's Megawati, are President Xanana Gusmao and his Australian-born First Lady, savouring the momentous, long-awaited occasion.
- Kirsty Sword Gusmao is a guest at the Byron Bay Writers Festival, July 29 to August 1, in panels on 'Injustice as Inspiration', and 'Exile', and 'In conversation with Mary Delahunty' at a Literary Lunch at Fins, Beach Hotel, on Friday, July 30, 12pm-3.30pm. Details at www.byronbaywritersfestival.com.au.
- Thanks to Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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