Welcome to a new year, as we cross the threshold into 2015, we look back  on the year that has passed. 

A is for Advocacy

On 30 August 2014, “The Bukit Brown, Brownies” became the first recipient of the Civil Society Advocate Organisation of the Year Award in the inaugural Singapore Advocacy Awards.

The Brownies with Constance Singam, one of the judges and a highly esteemed civil activist and writer

It was  an honour that we could not have dreamed off  when we started our journey in January 2012 to raise awareness about the heritage,habitat and history of a 90 year old cemetery, that many say had been “abandoned” and “forgotten”.

The ST report on the Advocacy Awards 2014

Well, here’s the news, they were wrong. And this is why: over 13,000 participants to the guided walks –  comprising a  demographic from all walks of life, from all ages, from students to community constituency groups, photography enthusiasts, international academics, meet-up groups,   and media crews, travel writers,  civil servants, docents etc etc;   4 exhibitions over 2 years,  the first ever listing for Singapore as a heritage site under threat, under the World Monuments Fund Watchlist 2014, and this year alone, 3 major academic publications. It is a record which speaks for itself,  carried by a momentum, best described as organic in nature, and a ground up initiative.  When it comes to development in Singapore and how it impacts our  history and heritage our sense of identity and place , Bukit Brown as a cause, as a movement, as a place in the memory scape of Singaporeans, refuses to die.

B is for Bukit Brown

2014 was a year Bukit Brown went off-site and  “broke new ground” in 2 major exhibitions  and  inaugural guided walks in the City.

In March, Woon Tien Wei and Jennifer Teo, the husband-and-wife artist-activist team behind Post-Museum curated “The Bukit Brown Index”  which was one out of 28 local works featured in  an exhibition called  “Unearthed”  The highlight of their work was a wall  on which the names of the exhumed and unclaimed which had to make way for the highway through Bukit Brown, were hand written with the help of Brownies, among others in the heritage and artistic community.

The Bukit Brown Index “memorial” wall – photo from Today online 22 March, 2014

In July, Bukit Brown : Documenting New Horizons of Knowledge was officially opened by MOS (MND) Desmond Lee at the National Library. It represents almost one and half years of research and working the ground documenting some 4,153 tombstones which are affected by the building of a new highway across Bukit Brown, by a team under the leadership of Dr. Hui Yew-Foong, an anthropologist with ISEAS. The exhibition is currently on tour at regional libraries until next year.

(photo Ang Hock Chuan)

The Exhibition at Choa Chu Kang Library (photo Mok Ly Yng) The next and final venue will be at Toa Payoh Public Library. It will open from 4 January 2015 (Sun) till 31 January 2015 (Sat).

In conjunction with the exhibition,  All Things Bukit Brown curated 2 special guided walks The Descendants Stories which featured descendants of pioneers sharing their stories of uncovering their roots in Bukit Brown.

Noreen, a descendant of Chia Hood Theam, showing pictures of her family (photo by Sally T)

Our march into the city was sealed when we partnered the Singapore Heritage Society and co-curated the Bukit Brown in the City and the City in Bukit Brown Walk  walks for the Singapore Heritage Festival 2014 in July.

Bukit Brown in the City (photo Theresa Teng)

In May, we partnered Jane’s Walks and curated a walk which took participants from the Botanic Gardens to Bukit Brown ,  bridging  the colonial and immigrant narratives of our history.

Bukit Brown Jane’s Walk (photo Garden Hill)

And in a nod to the Bukit Brown Jane’s Walk, 2 participants Louise and Bridget  organised of their own initiative and without any assistance from the brownies, a guided walk for a group of ten of their friends in September. We thank them and hope they will do more!

Louise’s and Bridget’s Guided Walk for friends in September inspired by their participating in the Jane’s Walk (photo Louise Ragget)

In September also  All Things Bukit Brown, was invited to make a 10 minute presentation in the “Singapore Dreaming”  workshop   by the  Asian Urban Lab  as a lead up to a  the major conference in 2015 where leading artists, academics, professionals and other thinkers across diverse disciplines  will share and explore alternative visions of a Singapore that is sustainable, creative and vibrant.

The topic of  the “Singapore Dreaming” workshop  (Artwork by Ee Hoon)

In 2014, Bukit Brown continued to be featured in student media projects, international news analysis on Singapore’s issues of development and heritage, local TV programmes from “My Grandfathers’ Road” to “Secret Singapore” and its sheer beauty and remembrance of Singapore as as a major battleground in WW 2 was visually showcased  in an award winning art house film called “The Canopy”  screened at this year’s Singapore International Festival in November.

Next year, watch out as one of the Brownies will  guest host a new programme on Channel 5 to introduce Bukit Brown.

Filming for a new TV show in 2015 (photo Peter Pak)

After a  hiatus and the completion of The Adam Park Project TAPP , the ever popular Battlefield Tours conducted by Jon Cooper returned – once a month  every first Sunday – and continue to be over subscribed.

Last Battlefield  Tour of 2014 by the lively and knowledgeable war archeologists Jon Cooper (photo Bianca Polak)

In 2014, we conducted more guided walks by private request.  Of all the requests for guided walks, the most enthusiastic and frequent requests came from our educational institutions from secondary to tertiary institutions both local and international for “Learning Journeys”

Dunman Secondary School students observing a minutes silence at the grave of Tan Ean Kiam (photo Yik Han)

JNV-Students-at-Ong-Sam-Leong-photo-All-Things-Bukit-Brown

We shifted gears from  guided walks and organised on request by Standard Chartered Bank, a Corporate Social Responsibility event which was so successful, the bank has already completed 3 sessions at Bukit Brown of clearing and cleaning selected tombs between May and November 2014. They will make a comeback in 2015.

The first Stanchart Clean-up in May 2014 (photo by Claire Leow)

On site, discoveries continued to be made. This year alone, the two great finds were the founder of Hong San See temple Neo Jin Quee and the family cluster tombs of Lee Kuan Yew maternal ancestors.

Zaobao report on finding Neo Jin Quee, founder of Hong San See Temple, May 5, 2014

A reunion of descendants of LKY’s maternal ancestry at Bukit Brown (photo Raymond Goh)

On site, as we have done, for every year since 2012, we celebrated NDP ’14 , Our Bukit Brown, Our People with both gusto and with sadness  in an landscape which has changed and will continue to change as the road works encroach slowly but surely .

NDP’14 (photo Lawrence Chong)

On site, sometime in November, while we were not looking, the  ole raintree was chopped down  and  overnight it was gone, our consolation  comes from our shared memories.

The ‘ole rain tree – memories (photo Lawrence Chong)

RIP Ole Rain Tree

 C is for Community

It has been the heart of community  and your passionate support which has sustained, encouraged and uplifted  the Brownies over the past 3 years. A community which includes academics, journalists, artists, writers, descendants, tomb keepers and fellow activists in heritage and the environment. We single out for  our gratitude the Singapore Heritage Society and the Facebook Group Community Heritage Singapore- Bukit Brown Cemetery.

When a call was made for feedback to be given on the URA Draft  Masterplan 2013 in December of the same year,  we received some 30 responses which were sent to the Ministry of National Development. You wrote   on how important it was to preserve Bukit Brown for future generations, for the environment,  as a space important to root Singaporeans to the land and for the sharing of collective memories.

In June 2014 the Masterplan was gazetted with no changes to plans for Bukit Brown. But if you thought, your efforts were for naught, let us reassure you, it was noted and it did make a difference in paving the way for better engagement on the future of Bukit Brown. We have only just began.

In 2014, three  major academic papers  on Bukit Brown were published

We thank : (Drs) Natalie Pang and Liew Kai Khuin “Archiving the Wild Archivists”, Dr Terence Chong (Singapore Heritage Society) “Bukit Brown municipal cemetery: Contesting Imaginations of the Good life in Singapore”  and Prof Huang Juanli ” Resurgent Spirits of Civil Society Activism: Rediscovering the Bukit Brown Cemetery in Singapore”  for their comprehensive and thoughtful and thought provoking papers.

To the descendants who have trusted us with their stories, we salute you.

Gillian Lim-Mendy with her husband flew from London to pay their respects to their Grandfather Lim Hock Seng for the first time in December. Her story can be found here (photo Catherine Lim )

Brownies visit the grave of Yap Geok Song, newly renovated after descendants contacted Peter Pak to show them  their ancestor’s tomb after reading his blog

On Sept 22, Zaobao reported on the Yap descendants

And a special mention and shout out to Zaobao journalist Chia Yei Yei and the heritage reporters of Zaobao for the breathe and depth of coverage they have given to all things related to Bukit Brown from pioneers to Brownies in 2014.

The Chinese daily  capped off the year in recognition of the part the Goh Brothers have played in uncovering our historical and heritage gems by headlining  them among the paper’s Personalities of 2014.

Zaobao Headline News on 28 December, 2014

We ended  2014 on site, in the last guided walk of Bukit Brown for the year with some 50 people turning up.

Collections, Recollections and Our Favourite Moments, last guided walk for 2014 on Sat, 27 Dec (photo Yeo Hong Eng)

50 is of course a significant number as  we cross the threshold into 2015. 2015 is SG50, a year of national celebration of 50 years of our history and achievements. But what can we look forward to in a landscape which will continue to be pockmarked and drastically changed by construction work on the development of a highway?

We will keep calm and carry on, engage constructively, walk the ground, walk the talk, continue to be excited by new discoveries and we will – and this is a clue – write a new chapter on our past and take  it into the present. In short, we will continue to honour our heritage, habitat and history, and remember those who laid down their lives in memoriam for without them, SG50 would not be possible.

“Lest we Forget”

We remember Victoria Tan and Edmon Neoh-Khoo

RIP

Compiled by Catherine Lim