This paper explores the governance of dead bodies in Timor-Leste. It shows that what counts as a 'proper' form of honouring those who died during the Indonesian occupation is increasingly determined through complex negotiations between customary and familial requirements and state demands.
Paper long abstract
This paper explores the governance of dead bodies in independent Timor-Leste. Specifically, it examines how the state is constructing, and exerting ownership of, 'martyrs' by establishing district-based heroes' cemeteries and ossuaries and organising state-sponsored reburial rituals. What counts as a 'proper' form of honouring those who died during the Indonesian occupation is increasingly determined through complex negotiations between customary and familial requirements and state demands. I argue that the outcomes of these negotiations around East Timorese mortuary rituals establish boundaries around national 'belonging' and are part of the process of defining the scope and power of a new state. The ownership of the dead is a lens through which to view peoples' everyday encounters with, and responses to, performances of state legitimacy.