Wawata Topu: Mermaids of Timor-Leste

*Wawata Topu* (Women Divers in Rasua dialect) is an award-winning documentary that follows four generations of fisherwomen in the coastal village of Adara, West Ataúro, in Timor-Leste. The film portrays their daily lives, economic practices, and central concerns, while also highlighting the conflicting discourses and social barriers they encounter. Through an ethnographic lens, it reveals their significant role in household economies and the broader fishing community. Their underwater diving is set against a backdrop of rapid social change, marked by the spread of formal education, the increasing influence of Western moral values, and the emergence of alternative livelihoods less dependent on the sea. These factors are shaping a new social negotiation of economic strategies that were first established by the oldest generation in the 1950s.