Photojournalist Elaine Briere was travelling the Southeast Asian “hippy trail” in 1974, a trip that brought her among other places to pre-invasion East Timor. She fell in love with the country. After its invasion, she found she had some of the very few high-quality images of pre-invasion East Timor. She shared them with solidarity groups around the world. Especially in Canadian activism, they became iconic. Some have even found their way back to independent Timor-Leste.
Images: girl carrying corn, East Timor, 1974; TV Times review of Briere’s film “Bitter Paradise: The Sell-Out of East Timor”; ETAN button with Briere 1974 photo; ETAN leaflets featuring Briere 1974 photos; cover of Pacific Rim magazine feature; cover of Briere’s book East Timor Testimony, featuring images from 1974 and 2000 visits to East Timor (all by Elaine Briere, from ETAN papers); Briere’s photo of Bella Galhos at the 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver from the Chega! exhibit, Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, Comarca, Balide, Dili, Timor-Leste (photo: David Webster).
Canadian solidarity with East Timor 