Ego Lemos

A scarcity of venues, mainstream radio coverage and state-of-the art recording facilities would deter many musicians, but for East Timorese singer-songwriter Ego Lemos, it is but one of the many challenges he has overcome in his career.

Born in the town of Aileu, an hour from Dili, Lemos is one of many East Timorese who lost family members, including his father, during the
Indonesian occupation. The experience of living in a nation with a violent history is never far from the surface in Lemos's haunting, poetic music. It is this honesty that inspired Australian fi lm director Robert Connolly to collaborate with Lemos on the score for Balibo (2009), the story of five journalists killed in 1975 while trying to document Indonesian incursions in East Timor prior to the invasion.

Music, however, is just part of Lemos's vocation. He is also respected for his environmental and community development work. In 1999, Lemos founded Permatil, an NGO aimed at reintroducing traditional agriculture techniques in East Timor.

"We realised that, under the Indonesians, local knowledge of Timorese farmers was being destroyed and farmers were having to become more dependent on external input such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, machinery and specialists from outside our country," he says. Given that around 85 percent of the population's livelihood is based on agriculture, Lemos is adamant that the next generation should not su! er for the decisions the East Timorese make about land use today. "We want government agricultural policies that will benefi t small farmers and not hurt the environment."

Ego Lemos will perform at the Darwin Festival, August 12-29, 2010.