Saskia Kouwenberg

Saskia Kouwenberg (born 1952) is a Dutch human rights activist and journalist. She is known for her advocacy for the self-determination of indigenous people, including in Timor-Leste and Maluku, as well as her campaigns against nuclear weapons, colonialism and war, with which she has worked with human rights groups and organisations including Amnesty International and the United Nations. While Kouwenberg has advocated for peace and held mediation meetings, she also supported the raids of military bases as a form of protest.

Early life Kouwenberg was born and raised in Zundert, a village in North Brabant; her parents were greengrocers.

Activism Kouwenberg participated in anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in Amsterdam on 21 November 1981, and went on to help establish a peace camp outside the Volkel Air Base. Kouwenberg used her film-making knowledge to make a documentary about nuclear tests in New Zealand. She was part of a delegation that travelled to Maluku to report on interreligious conflicts that had happened there. On 12 November 1991, the Santa Cruz massacre occurred in Dili in the Indonesian-occupied East TImor, in which one of Kouwenberg's friends was killed; British cameraman Max Stahl captured footage of the events, and Kouwenberg smuggled it from Dili to the Netherlands, via Jakarta, in her underwear. The footage was broadcast internationally, and led to greater understanding and support of the East Timorese independence movement, including the establishment of the East Timor Action Network. On 10 September 2019, she received the People's Prize for Solidarity from La'o Hamutuk, held in Dili, from sister Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz and the chairman on the 12 November Committee, Gregório Saldanha.

Personal life In 2000, Kouwenberg returned to the Netherlands to care for her mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, for the next 14 years. She also went on to care for her sister, who had also been diagnosed with the disease. Kouwenberg wrote a book about her experiences as a carer, entitled Dying, Death and Beyond. Kouwenberg currently lives in Nimbin, Australia.