Book tells story of Timorese asylum seekers' daring escape to Darwin

Jose da Costa, born in 1976 amidst the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, recounts his early life spent hiding in the bush before his family was captured. Over the subsequent years, more than 100,000 Timorese would die in the struggle for independence, a fight that saw activists like da Costa join clandestine youth movements.

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My family ran to the bush to hide. I was born in the bush.

In 1995, da Costa was part of a group that organized a perilous sea journey to seek political asylum in Australia. Without informing his family, he boarded the Tasi Diak, a small fishing boat meaning "good sea," with 17 other asylum seekers, including a six-month-old baby. The journey was fraught with danger, relying on a small engine and lacking life jackets or swimming ability.

After six harrowing nights at sea, the group arrived in Darwin, marking the only successful crossing between East Timor and Australia during the 24 years of Indonesian rule. This remarkable escape and the broader Timorese struggle for independence are now chronicled in the new book, "The Good Sea," by author Vannessa Hearman.

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Some of them were killed, some of them got arrested and put in prison, so our struggle for independence very much was oppressed, crushed.

Hearman, who became involved in the Timor solidarity movement after the 1991 Dili Massacre, dedicated 10 years to researching the story. The book details the "political mission" of the asylum seekers and the oppressive conditions faced by those fighting for independence in East Timor.

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It was the most frightening journey at that time. One of the most frightening things was we could not swim. We didn't have any life jackets, [and] we only relied on a small engine with one piston, so if the machine breaks down that [was] very much the end of our life.