Uma Lulik: Wai Daba Bee-matan boot no lagoa iha kompleksu bee-matan hamutuk Wai Daba nian iha Bercoli. Bee husi bee-matan ne’e fó bee ba natar bar-barak. Bei'ala ida naran Ono Daba hetan fatin ida ne’e bainhira nia hamulak no bee foin mosu derrepente husi bee-matan. Bee-na'in mak konta tanba saida mak Wai Daba importante tebes ba istória mudansa iha Baucau iha tempu koloniál: Buat ne’ebé importante loos iha ne’e mak bee. Ami-nia bei'ala sira konsege halo to’os, natar no kuda plantasaun oi-oin tanba bee ida ne’e. Ami nia natar mak tuan. Iha tempu monarkia molok Portugés sira mai ami sei iha natar. Ami la iha karau, la iha kuda, ami dulas rai ho fatuk bo-boot. Ami halo fatin ida, kesi tiha talin ida ba fatuk-ahu no dada nia to’o halo rai tahu. La iha balada mos natar fatin sei uituan de'it. Natar fatin orijinál (uluk liu) ida-idak iha nia naran. Bainhira Portugés sira mai (foin hahú sekulu XX) sira rai naran iha livru impostu nian, maibé baihira ami nia uma ahi han tiha (durante tempu Indonézia) livru oan ne’e lakon(1). Portugés sira haruka de'it liurai sira nia oan ba eskola – ne’e hanesan polítika ida. Se karik ne’e la mosu, entaun karik ami hotu hotu sai matenek. Bercoli iha rai Waima’a nia klaran ne’ebé uluk dada husi Matebian nia tutun to’o Vemasse. Agora rai ne’e mak Makassae sira domina fali, maibé Portugés sira fahe rai ida ne’e. (1) Livru oan ne’e mak importante tebes iha kontestu konflitu kona-ba natar ne'ebé mosu entre rai no bee-na'in sira no jerasaun husi Quelicai. Iha sekulu XX, ema bolu sira (husi Quelicai) tuir juramentu ho liurai Quelicai ida hodi mai halo to’os/natar iha rai ne’e (rai Waima’a nian). _______________ Uma Lulik: Wai Daba Major spring and lake in the Wai Daba spring complex, Bercoli. Its water channels fed many rice fields. The ancestor named Ono Daba found this place and when he recited a prayer the water began to gush forth from the spring. The spring's custodian tells the story of the ongoing significance of Wai Daba and the history of colonial change in the Baucau district: "What is important here is water. Our forebears were able to produce fields, rice and plantations because of this water. Our rice fields are old. In monarchical times before the Portuguese arrived we already had them. We had no buffalo or horses, we would prepare the fields by dragging rocks through them. We would make a place and tie a rope to a piece of limestone and drag it around to make the soil muddy. There were no animals. And there were only a small amount of rice fields. These original rice fields were all named. When the Portuguese arrived [in the early twentieth century] they were recorded in a book of tax records, but when our sacred house was burnt down [in the Indonesian era] that book was lost.[i] The Portuguese sent only the children of the rulers to school—this was their policy. If this hadn't been the case, we would all be smart by now. Bercoli is the heart of the Waima'a lands which stretched from here to the top of Matebian and across to Vemasse. While now these lands are largely dominated by the Makassae, it was the Portuguese that carved up the land. [i] This book of records is important in the context of a current dispute over rights to particular rice fields between the custodians of the land and waters and the descendents of others from Quelicai. In the early twentieth century, the latter were 'invited' in (through sacred agreement with a liurai from Quelicai) to farm in the area.