It’s a great pleasure to introduce the work of a Music in Peacebuilding champion from Timor-Leste. Ego Lemos combines his two passions -- singing and environmental issues -- to produce songs, events, lectures, festivals, and more, thereby contributing to a profound transformation of the land and the people in Timor-Leste.

He sings in various languages, including his native tongue, Tetum. His song “Balibo” was awarded best original song at the 2009 Screen Music Awards, as well as a 2009 Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) Award for best song in a film.

In 2023, Lemos was appointed Presidential Goodwill Ambassador and Special Envoy for Culture, Environment and Water Resources, as the executive director of Permatil (Permakultura Timor Lorosa’e). In 2023, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as the “Nobel Prize of Asia.”

Thanks to the introduction of my colleague Lynda-Ann Blanchard (Senior Researcher, University of Sydney), I had an opportunity to meet with Ego Lemos at the Sophia University Institute of Asian Cultural Studies on April 12, 2025,and to attend his presentation “Environmental issues and climate crisis: a look at pioneering effort in Timor-Leste,” organized in cooperation with two NPOs, PARCIC and APLA. The discussants were Prof. Kenichi Abe (Professor Emeritus, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature) and the moderator Prof. Shintaro Fukutake.

During a short conversation before his presentation, Ego shared his childhood experience of surviving violence and turmoil, with three indispensable allies saving his life during these troubled times: his mother, music, and nature. As mentioned on the website of Skinny FishMusic: “He was born in 1972, in the dying days of the Portuguese colonial administration, and as a baby fled the civil unrest following Portugal’s withdrawal, Fretilin’s declaration of Independence, and Indonesia’s invasion. Ego was taken with his mother and relatives to the rural forests of East Timor, where he survived with other families for three years without basic infrastructure. During this time, and the immediate period thereafter, when they were able to move back to the Capital, Dili, Ego lost his three siblings to disease and malnutrition, and his father and grandfather to the confusion of war.”

During the lecture, Ego got the audience to sing along to several songs (which I learned are famous in Timor-Leste), and talked about the situation of water conservation in his country. He is planning the “International Permaculture Convergence” (IPYC-2025) in October 2025. The culmination of various events over the past few years, it will gather young people from around the world to share permaculture praxis and develop an international permaculture network. The presentation was highly interactive and each participant had an opportunity to contribute to the planning and conceptualization of this event through questions, comments and collective reflections.

If I may add some brief personal thoughts, I think it is worth exploring further how Ego Lemos has achieved success with the popularity of these events, with his unique blend of musicianship and technical knowledge of permaculture. He is able to draw in thousands of young people who are singing, dancing, working on the land and giving back to Timor-Leste the water resources it once had.