ABSTRACT
In the exploration of the political and historical context of land relations in Maliana sub-district, processes of continuity and change have significantly altered perceptions and practices associated with land attachment. In some areas, most notably those that have been least affected by colonial processes of improvement, contemporary practice continues to be strongly guided by traditional appeals to locally emplaced political authorities and patterns of land entitlement drawn from ancestral precedence. Maliana sub-district lies in the far west of East Timor nestled in the fertile upland plains of Nunura and enclosed by steep mountain ranges that form the western highlands of Bobonaro district. Informants from Uat who were civil servants during the Indonesian period were offered public service housing (PERUMNAS) in one of two areas in Maliana town near the airstrip in Ritabou village or in the neighbourhood of Ramos Kore.
