Fataluku population demographic information

There are four distinct language groups and cultures within the District of Lautem, with Fataluku being the largest percentage, at 69%, with a total of 48,910 speakers at the 2010 census. A fifth language group, Makua/Lovaia is in danger of disappearing with the recent deaths of the last speakers of that language. According to Rappaport (2015), Fataluku is grouped into five mutually understandable dialects. Fataluku culture and language is predominant in the four eastern-most sub-districts of Timor-Leste: Lospalos; Lautem, Lorehe and Tutuala.

Livelihood in Lautem district

A majority of Lautem residents are farmers, growing largely swidden agriculture combining maize and secondary food crop cultivation with smallholder livestock production (McWilliam, 2011). Fataluku people have a strong connection to the forests and coastal areas in which they reside, which provide a source of wild food and other products to sustain livelihoods. Aside from firewood, timber, and other building materials (bamboo, rotans and thatch for roofing), forests also provide fibres, ropes, baskets, gums and vegetable supplements such as tubers, wild beans, leaf vegetables, resins, honey and forest fruits. Hunting is conducted throughout the year, using various poisons, traps, spears and dogs to source game meat and seafood (McWilliam 2011). Stands of bamboo, sugar palm, tamarind and timber grow in the forests in Lautem. The forest is also home to various species of game birds, deer, wild pigs, monkeys, bats, civet cat and cuscus, which are hunted by local people (Pannell, 2011, p. 224). From the ocean, Fataluku people hunt fish, clams, sea turtles, sea eels, crabs, and sea urchins, as well as freshwater shrimp. Reef gleaning (meti fai, tono fai) for octopus and crustaceans, seaweed and other edible marine creatures is practised along the foreshore during low tide (McWilliam 2011, p. 75 in McWilliam & Traube 2011).