Melissa Johnston: Resilient Patriarchies

Talking Indonesia · Feb 26, 2026 · 43m

Timor Leste became independent from Indonesia in 2002, after 24 painful years of Indonesian occupation built on centuries of Portuguese colonisation. Both regimes were deeply violent and extractive, and as my guest today argues, drew Timorese society into different forms of a valorised armed masculinity that would have repercussions well after Timor’s independence. It’s in this post-conflict context that Mel Johnston examines Timor’s gender interventions. Gender mainstreaming is a global set of strategies, interventions and approaches that seek to address the inequality of being a women in…