[1] She won the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for organizing hundreds of local villagers to peacefully occupy marble mining sites in “weaving protests,” to stop destruction of sacred forest land on Mutis Mountain on the island of Timor.

Having lost her mother at a young age, she was raised by other women and elders in the village who taught her to respect the environment as a source of their spiritual identity and livelihood.

While the women protested at the mine, the men provided domestic support at home, cooking, cleaning and caring for the children.

[1][2] In the face of the villagers’ peaceful and sustained presence, marble mining became an increasingly untenable endeavor for the companies involved.

[2] She works in water security and indigenous peoples natural resource management and land rights.