Elizita Da Costa

Intro

Elizita, a migrant from East Timor living in Dungannon, finds solace and community through music, particularly singing in the East Timorese choir. Despite the challenges of adapting to a new culture and language, she remains resilient, inspired by her mother’s strength and support.

Summary

Elizita lives in Dungannon with her husband and 4 children. She has been here 14 years and she and her husband are very involved in the East Timorese choir – an important space for community, belonging and friendship. They sing in Tetum, Portuguese and English. Her husband is the choir master and he also plays piano. Music is a great love. She sang and was involved in church choirs in her home country. It is her passion. Through music she finds release and expression, it is therapy. If she feels down singing lifts her spirit and having a community to support and belong to as well as sing with is a very important part of her life. It was very hard when Elizita came from Portugal to live here. So many barriers, especially language and a completely different culture. In East Timor and Portugal, much warmer climates, life is lived very much outdoors and getting used to the damper climate and living much more indoors took time to get used to.

It was so hard to adapt to another new culture and language and was very isolating at first. She was able to find foods and shops to buy ingredients to make traditional foods from East Timor, this was more difficult in Portugal. Although the children prefer beef stew and Irish fries!

Her mother is her hero. As a child she was very ill. The medics in East Timor couldn’t help her, there was no cure but her mother always encouraged her to walk and get strong and accompanied her to school. She wants to be this mother for her children

Elizita explains that for her being a migrant and coming to a new country in search of a better life and opportunities was a choice but explains how it is such a difficult decision to leave the people and country you love in search and hope of a better life. The challenges of integration and a new country have many barriers and obstacles. Dance as well as music is a something close to her heart and helpful in overcoming depression and stress.

She has loved being part of Heritage Journeys.

“FSWC has been a very helpful contact point for me in many aspects, such as ESOL classes and child care”.