Xanana Gusmao Reading Room

The Xanana Gusmão Reading Room’s proposed project “Dadolin to Welcome Guests in Tetun Terik”. The funding will enable the XGRR to support Timorese cultural and Indigenous language preservation, by recording two dadolin from each of five municipalities in written, audio and visual forms, distributing it through libraries and schools and broadcasting them on radio and social media channels.

Dadolin is a poetic ceremonial greeting used across Timor L’este, which is endangered due to generational change and lack of documentation. 

The project will record two dadolin from each of five municipalities in written, audio and visual forms, distributing it through libraries and schools and broadcasting them on radio and social media channels. 

Dadolin will be captured in Tetun Terik, a mother tongue language used in Covalima, Bobonaro, Manufahi, Manatutu, and Viqueque. 

While collecting and documenting dadolin, the project will deliver workshops with municipal-level authorities to support capacity building in collecting mother tongue language materials

The project will continue the successful partnership between the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the XGRR to assist in the preservation of Timorese Mother Tongue languages, supporting the United Nations’ Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).