27 Jan 2018 (Sat): "The Love of Tuah and Jebat" at Pulau Ubin with Pulau Sekudu

Experience Singapore's seashore heritage! At Pulau Ubin with Pulau Sekudu.

Come for an immersive interactive event, a site-specific dance on Pulau Ubin, with the actual film location Pulau Sekudu within sight


Cinta Tuah Jebat (The Love of Tuah and Jebat)
from State of Motion

Photo from State of Motion.

The artwork examines the final fight between Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat from Phani Majumdar’s 1956 film Hang Tuah and Hussain Haniff’s 1961 film Hang Jebat through recorded audio playback and live performance. The work hopes to amplify the tension between the two warriors during the infamous fight to the death where they talk of loyalty, betrayal, love, revenge, rage, and desire. The audience will experience an immersive interactive event where they are able to listen to the audio playback in any of the four available languages–Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil–and view a site-specific dance on Pulau Ubin, with the actual film location Pulau Sekudu within sight.

Date: 27 Jan 2018 (Sat)
Time: 10am - 7pm, Tours every 45 minutes
Cost: $12
Register here


Pulau Sekudu and Pulau Ubin
from State of Motion

A local legend goes that a frog, a pig and an elephant raced each other across the Johor Straits. They didn’t make it to the opposite shore and ended up as islands, with the pig and elephant becoming Pulau Ubin (literally Granite Island; actually made up of two islands), and the frog transforming into Pulau Sekudu (literally Frog Island).

An islet lying just off the Chek Jawa wetlands, Pulau Sekudu is well-visited by nature enthusiasts during low spring tides to make records of the abundant sea creatures. From a distance, the islet’s most distinctive features are the granite rock boulders that rise picturesquely above the intertidal waters and sandy flats. Barring weathering and erosion over time, these rock formations have stayed more or less the same over the decades. We know this from films that used Pulau Sekudu as a film location in the past.

1956’s Hang Tuah features a young, courageous Hang Tuah who leads his friends to a Pulau Sekudu to ambush a gang of pirates. In 1961’s Hang Jebat, a revisionist response to Hang Tuah, the adult titular character (“returns” and) sits atop the rocks of Sekudu and contemplates a revenge for his maligned sworn brother Hang Tuah.

Current status of Pulau Sekudu

Tiny Pulau Sekudu lies just off Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin. It is part of the Chek Jawa Wetlands that is managed by NParks. Pulau Sekudu is off limits since 2007 and requires special permission from NParks.

Pulau Sekudu got marine life meh?

Yes! A small team of volunteers have been surveying biodiversity at Pulau Sekudu regularly. Here's what they saw on Pulau Sekudu.

Volunteering for Pulau Ubin and Pulau Sekudu

A great way to visit these shores and learn more about them is to volunteer. Here's some volunteer opportunities

Chek Jawa and Pulau Ubin with NParks
Volunteer with NParks to guide at Chek Jawa and other walks in Pulau Ubin, join biodiversity surveys, habitat restoration and more. More details by NParks.

TeamSeaGrass
Volunteer for this citizen science programme to regularly monitor seagrasses at Chek Jawa, Pulau Semakau and Cyrene Reef, and help with outreach for seagrasses throughout the year. More details by TeamSeaGrass.

Intertidal Watch with NParks
Volunteer for this citizen science programme to regularly collect quantitative data of intertidal biodiversity on several Singapore shores. More details by NParks.

We'd love to hear YOUR Pulau Sekudu stories! Please share them in the comments below.