On April 12th, 2012, at the Hotel Timor, the Secretary of State for Culture, Virgílio Smith, was accompanied by the Ambassador of Japan in Timor-Leste, Yoshitaka Hanada, by the representative of the UNESCO National Commission of Timor-Leste, Jacinta Imaculada, and by the representative of UNESCO in Jakarta, Anwar Al-Said, in the launching of the catalogue “Colecção Ai-to’os”.

Virgílio Smith said, “this book is about Ai-to’os and the wooden statues. The Ai-to’os and the statues represent our material cultural expression and have become, simultaneously, the symbol of our tradition. It is through the Ai-to’os and the statues that we celebrate our rituals or traditional ceremonies, that we pray and offer sacrifices to the ancestors”.

He went on to add, “further to representing our material cultural expression, the thesis contained in the book also contain History, which managed to survive during the dramatic events of 1999.”

The representative of UNESCO in Jakarta, Anwar Al-Said, was pleased to be present, and stated “the preservation is part of the appreciation of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Timor-Leste, which in the future may serve as History, to students and researchers and to all who are interested in the Timorese culture. This is something that institutions should do, and a way to transmit culture from one generation to another. “

Anwar Al-Said pointed out: “UNESCO, on its part, is committed to continue to work with Timor-Leste, in search of mechanisms for capacity building, to ensure that the Timorese culture is documented. We are grateful to UNESCO, as well as to the Japanese Government, for being interested in this issue.”