At just six months old, energy executive Niny Borges was carried on her mother’s back across mountains separating Timor-Leste from the Indonesian province of West Timor.

It was September 1975. The family of 10 were fleeing the civil war that erupted in Timor-Leste after the Portuguese colonisers withdrew in 1975. Local political party Fretilin prevailed in the struggle, governed for a few months, and then Indonesia marched in.