Three-day festival turns Clementi into “heritage village”
Five months after the launch of the National Heritage Board’s (NHB) first Heritage Activation Node in Katong-Joo Chiat, the board will on Sept 13 mark the start of a second node, in Clementi, with a three-day festival.
Featuring cultural performances, guided tours, a skating workshop and other activities, the festival’s hub will be a temporary “heritage village” in Clementi Town Centre, where exhibits, booths and a stage will be set up.
With the help of a web-based app, those who participate in the festival can also explore Clementi, which was developed in the 1970s as the Housing Board’s eighth town.
Called JourneyX, the app takes users on a walking trail to 15 stops around the town, such as Clementi Sport Hall, a row of aquariums in Block 328 Clementi Avenue 2 and hawker stalls such as Fong’s Dee Curry Puff.
The app was developed by students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), which has been located in Clementi since 1968. As NHB’s anchor partner for the new node, the poly will organise heritage programmes for the town in the coming years.
Student Synette Teh, 19, who studies Chinese media and communication, worked on the app’s content for about six months with five other course mates. Three students from the polytechnic’s immersive media course worked on programming from April.
Ms Teh said she and her schoolmates felt that many young people are disconnected from Singapore’s heritage and their local community. To address this, they decided to create an accessible platform for young people to engage with and explore Clementi.
By visiting each stop and completing tasks such as reading about the history of the site or watching a short video about it, participants earn virtual stamps that can be exchanged for rewards during the festival.
NHB’s Heritage Activation Node initiative aims to involve the public and local communities in celebrating the heritage of Singapore’s neighbourhoods and organising their own heritage programmes.
Each node showcases a neighbourhood’s heritage in terms of spaces, such as heritage markers and pop-up installations; programmes, such as guided trails and workshops; and Heritage Champions, who include volunteers who run activities.
To encourage community ownership, NHB works with local partners such as NP to establish each node. More than 130 students and volunteers are involved in the launch festival for Clementi.
The board’s director of education and community outreach, Mr Gerald Wee, noted that the town has a long history and a “vibrant, youthful energy, due largely to the many schools and institutes of higher learning in the neighbourhood”, including the polytechnic.
He said the node “presents a great opportunity for the young to express their feelings about heritage”, and hopes that through NHB’s partnership with schools, businesses and community partners, more Singaporeans, especially young people, will get involved in heritage activities.
Ms Sandra Toh, director of NP’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, said the partnership has allowed students to apply skills picked up in school to real-world settings, and has given them a deeper appreciation of cultural preservation and community engagement.
Concurring, Ms Teh said that while she does not consider herself a heritage buff, working on the project has given her a newfound appreciation for community stories and hidden gems in the neighbourhood.
Such stories include that of Darussalam Mosque, which was completed in the 1980s and has served as a gathering point for people of all races over the years, such as in 2010, when it hosted screenings of World Cup matches.
Ms Toh said the polytechnic will run monthly heritage activities in Clementi in the longer term, facilitated by its students and those from other educational institutions in the area.
Members of the public can also run their own heritage programmes. NHB and NP will launch a call for collaborations by early 2025, with up to five selected projects eligible for NHB funding of up to $6,000 each.
NHB’s Mr Wee said these projects should ideally have a hands-on element for members of the public.
He added that the board recently selected six projects to be funded for the Katong-Joo Chiat node, which was launched in April.
Plans for two more heartland nodes to be launched in 2025 will be revealed in time, Mr Wee said.
A full list of programmes on offer at the Clementi node’s launch festival is available at go.gov.sg/hanclementi-festival
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