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Bella Galhos

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Bella Galhos (2020)

Bella Galhos (born 1972) is a former East Timorese independence activist during the period of Indonesian occupation of East Timor and has been a translator, presidential advisor, human rights activist and environmentalist since independence in 2002.

Early life

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Galhos' father reportedly had 45 children from 18 different women. After Indonesian armed forces invaded East Timor in 1975, they captured her father and brothers, and her father sold her to a soldier at the age of three for five dollars, on the grounds that she a had a "very male, dominant personality". After a long campaign by her mother, Galhos was returned to the family. She reported a history of sexual violence at the hands of family members and Indonesian authorities thereafter.[1][2]

At age 16, Galhos joined the Timorese independence movement, through its "clandestine front" of young activists. In 1991, several friends of Galhos were killed in the Santa Cruz massacre, organized by her uncle Constâncio Pinto.[3][4] As a result, she lived for three years under a different identity as a double agent ostensibly working with the Indonesian authorities. In 1994 she was selected as a participant of a youth exchange programme to Canada with Canada World Youth. There she applied for asylum immediately. After East Timor's independence, Galhos studied psychology at the University of Hawaii.

Independence activism in Canada

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After Galhos applied for and received refugee status in Canada, she campaigned for human rights in East Timor with the East Timor Alert Network as one of two Canadian representatives of the National Council of Maubere Resistance. She took part in numerous international lobbying events inside and outside Canada during these years.[5][6]

In January 1996, Benjamin Parwoto, the Indonesian ambassador to Canada, sought out Galhos' mother and told her to silence her daughter. The event caused a public outcry and the Canadian Department of External Affairs rebuked the ambassador.[2][7]

Career after independence

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With the end of the Indonesian occupation in 1999, she returned to East Timor to work for the United Nations Mission in East Timor. In 2012, Galhos became a civil society adviser to President Taur Matan Ruak. In 2017, she resigned from the advisory role. [citation needed]

Galhos founded the Leublora Green Village (LGV) in Maubisse, along with a not-for-profit environmental school (Leublora Green School)[1]. This includes a women's organic farming cooperative and an organic restaurant. The project aims to promote equal rights for women and environmental awareness in East Timorese society.[1][8][9] She has delivered TED Dili talks on issues including violence against women as part of feminist campaigning in East Timor.[10][11][12]

Galhos is a prominent activist for LGBT+ rights in East Timor. At the CODIVA (Coalition on Diversity and Action) Pride Event 2016 (the first of its kind in East Timor), Galhos became the first woman in East Timor to publicly come out as bisexual. In 2017, Galhos was co-organizer of the first Pride March in Dili, attended by 500 people. Together with her activist colleague and development expert Iram Saeed, Galhos founded the LGBTQ organization Arcoiris (Portuguese for rainbow).[8]

Honours and awards

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  • Woman of Courage 1999 (National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada)[12]
  • UN Freedom and Human Rights Award 2003[12]
  • Earth Company Impact Hero 2015[13]
  • Dalai Lama's Unsung Hero Award, 2017[14]
  • BBC's 100 Women list, 2023.[15]

Publication

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  • Iram Saeed and Bella Galhos: A Research Report on the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual Women and Transgender Men in Timor-Leste, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, East Timor, 2017.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Ativista timorense diz que foi excluída do próximo Governo pela sua orientação sexual". Diário de Notícias. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b "About Bella". Leublora Green Village. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. ^ Goodman, Amy (18 November 2016). "East Timor Minister Constâncio Pinto Reflects on 25th Anniversary of Santa Cruz Massacre". Democracy Now. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  4. ^ Jardine, Matthew (1997). East Timor's Unfinished Struggle: Inside the Timorese Resistance. Boston: South End Press. ISBN 978-1550285888.
  5. ^ "Lobby group urges Ottawa to act quickly on East Timor". CBC News. 7 September 1999. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  6. ^ Loney, Hannah (2018). "Speaking Out for Justice: Bella Galhos and the International Campaign for the Independence of East Timor". The Transnational Activist: Transformations and Comparisons from the Anglo-World Since the Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements: 193–226 – via Palgrave.
  7. ^ Webster, David (2009). Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a Decolonizing World. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 9780774816847.
  8. ^ a b Raynor, Sophie (7 June 2018). "Behind Timor-Leste's Pride". New Naratif. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  9. ^ "home page". Leublora Green Village. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  10. ^ Rowlands, Lyndal (6 March 2015). "From the Mountains to the Sea, Timorese Women Fight for More". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  11. ^ Diani, Hera (18 November 2017). "In East Timor, Activist Bella Galhos Challenges Norms, Fights Patriarchy". Magdalene. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  12. ^ a b c "Bella Galhos". TedX Dili. 29 July 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  13. ^ "Impact Hero 2015: Bella Galhos". Earth Company. 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  14. ^ dos Reis, Teodosia (7 August 2017). "Timor-Leste activist to receive the Dalai Lama's 'Unsung Hero Award'". KBR (Indonesia). Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  15. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2023: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. November 23, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
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