[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/local\/a-community-museum-for-migrant-workers-to-be-seen-and-heard\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/local\/a-community-museum-for-migrant-workers-to-be-seen-and-heard\/","headline":"A community museum for migrant workers to be seen and heard","name":"A community museum for migrant workers to be seen and heard","description":"Frequently unseen and underappreciated, low-wage migrant workers are now being celebrated for their contribution to Singapore through the Migrant Workers Community Museum. Curated by six workers, the museum showcases aspects of their personal and professional lives using objects that relate to their arrival here, living conditions, jobs, beliefs and hopes, as well as what they […]","datePublished":"2021-03-24","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Tsen-Waye%20Tay\/#Person","name":"Tsen-Waye Tay","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Tsen-Waye%20Tay\/","identifier":279,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87ee5c9e4223f38d5ff808a1d896bb520b87a2f27c980402aa90a23c59a77dc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87ee5c9e4223f38d5ff808a1d896bb520b87a2f27c980402aa90a23c59a77dc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1616590072487_DSCF3865_1280x626.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1616590072487_DSCF3865_1280x626.jpg","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/local\/a-community-museum-for-migrant-workers-to-be-seen-and-heard\/","about":["Community","Local"],"wordCount":3034,"articleBody":"Frequently unseen and underappreciated, low-wage migrant workers are now being celebrated for their contribution to Singapore through the Migrant Workers Community Museum. Curated by six workers, the museum showcases aspects of their personal and professional lives using objects that relate to their arrival here, living conditions, jobs, beliefs and hopes, as well as what they do for leisure. As part of The Substation\u2019s SeptFest 2021, the museum will run until 28 March.As you step into the Migrant Workers Community Museum at The Substation, a colourful chorus of slogans greets the visitor on the right. Phrases like \u2018Cut the Middleman\u2019, \u2018I Want to Go Home\u2019, \u201824 Hours Day Off\u2019 and \u2018Freedom to Change Employers\u2019 occupy this stark wall, which the accompanying caption explains, \u201cexpress some of their wishes [migrant workers\u2019] for the future.\u201dThe museum\u2019s co-facilitator Alfian Sa\u2019at, a renowned Singaporean writer, poet and playwright, thinks that while the display has been called the Wall of Wishes, he finds the term \u201canodyne\u201d: \u201cIf I wanted to be more radical about it,\u201d he says, \u201cI think I would call them protest signs.\u201dOne of the museum\u2019s six migrant worker curators, Saturnina De los Santos Rotelo, points to the hope for a mandatory 24-hour day off for domestic workers, like herself, as holding the most meaning for her.\u201cThe most important thing is the day off for me, because of all the hard work we do,\u201d she says. \u201cI don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything. Just sit down and relax my mind and my body. After that, I will call my family peacefully without someone listening to me.\u201dFIlipina Ms Rotelo, or \u2018Cute\u2019, as her friends affectionately call her, has worked in Singapore for 23 years. Being the oldest of eight children in her family, the former teacher took it upon herself to leave home at the age of 27, when her father fell ill, to work in Singapore so she could help pay for his medication and a mounting debt. Through this selfless act, she was able to support her family, paying for her siblings\u2019 education and building a home for them.The Wall of Wishes at the Migrant Worker Community Museum displays signs created by migrant workers expressing their hopes for their future in Singapore.I\/On the marginsSome one million low-wage migrants from countries like Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India, Myanmar and the Philippines work and live in this city state. They often find jobs in the construction, marine and service sectors, and also as domestic workers.\u00a0Many have been here for decades but this is the first time a museum dedicated to this often invisible, transient community has been created, albeit temporarily (until 28 March), as part of The Substation\u2019s SeptFest 2021, celebrating art, culture and community.\u00a0Mr Alfian says that he was invited by The Substation\u2019s Co-Artistic Director Raka Maitra to produce a piece of work for the festival, aligned with this year\u2019s theme In the Margins.\u00a0\u201cWhen I think of people who are marginal in Singapore, I usually think of people of minority status. So sexual minorities, ethnic minorities,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt wasn’t until a little later that the figure of the migrant worker surfaced in my mind. To my shame, because they are so marginal they don’t even register immediately when I think of people who are in the margins.\u201dHe wanted to do something out of his \u201ccomfort zone\u201d and fell upon the idea of a community museum. Without any prior experience on how to mount an exhibition, he roped in co-facilitators Zul Zulkiflee, an artist-curator and author and anthropologist-in-training Vithya Subramaniam.\u00a0\u201cThe Substation is precisely the kind of place that allows you to try something out, that won’t ask you questions like, \u2018Do you know what you’re doing?\u2019,\u201d he elaborates. \u201cBecause the ethos here is you learn from doing and sometimes you learn best by failing.\u201dCo-facilitator Ms Vithya explains that calling it a \u2018museum\u2019, rather than an \u2018exhibit\u2019, lends it legitimacy: \u201cA museum is in a way an authorising voice. It gives some kind of permanence to the stories that are being told.\u201dShe adds, \u201cIt\u2019s also about not just showing the experience of migrant workers, but reflecting it back to them and [saying] \u2018We hear your stories. And they are not just interesting for interesting\u2019s sake. It\u2019s important stories that your peers need to hear that we [Singaporeans] need to hear.\u2019\u201dSingapore’s first Migrant Workers Community Museum as part of The Substation’s SeptFest 2021. On until 28 March. (Source: The Substation)Creating place and meaning for communities in transitSelecting and placing these personal and professional artefacts in a formalised setting serves to speak to the materiality, memories and histories of migrants, whose labour and bodies are often undervalued in Singapore.\u201cThere\u2019s something about putting all these objects that we take for granted within a museum setting, that gives them a certain value and aura and presence,\u201d posits Mr Alfian. \u201cIf I put them on the street no one is going to look. But the minute you put it in a white cube context, shine a spotlight on it, put a caption beside it, then it’s something that you start paying attention to.\u201dLike the bright red words, DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS, that shout for attention along three consecutive pillars in The Substation Gallery. These refer to the types of jobs that migrant workers are typically employed to do that the local population find undesirable.\u00a0\u201cWe put it out there in very stark terms, the three Ds of migrant labour. Stuff that Singaporeans don’t want to do. And it’s weird, right? Because one should think that work that is difficult and dangerous should be highly paid. But it’s not. And that’s the unfortunate thing about it.\u201dOutraged by the injustice of \u201clabour exploitation\u201d, Mr Alfian wonders if the country is profiting off the labour of \u201cindentured\u201d workers\u201d. He calls this inequitable system the \u201cdark side of Singapore\u2019s economic prosperity\u201d.\u201cWhat is the barest minimum that you can get away with in terms of extracting labour, and yet not giving these people certain rights and welfare? I wish we examined that a little bit; how our very extreme pro-business inclinations have disenfranchised so many people.\u201dJobs that low-wage migrant workers take on in Singapore are often described as ‘dirty, difficult and dangerous’, and what Singaporeans do not want to do.Migrant workers curating their own narrativesCentring the migrant worker experience \u2013 their voices and narratives, by inviting them onboard as curators, was essential to the process of designing the museum. It also addressed inherent power imbalances within society.\u00a0As a student of anthropology, Ms Vithya’s role was to consider which objects to include in the museum, while prioritising the stories of migrant curators. In making these decisions, she notes that they were conscious about not perpetuating existing biases and stereotypes about migrant workers.\u201cThat was definitely critical, to not just reiterate what we think we know. Which is why you will see, besides more official-sounding [institutionalised] descriptions on what the object is, and where it’s from, quotes from the curators themselves, explaining their feelings about the objects or their feelings about the process that the object represents. That was really critical in centring the workers’ voice, the curators’ voice.\u201d\u00a0For instance, alongside an assembly of tools used by migrant workers in their various jobs, sits a quote instead of a description. It reads, \u201cWe are domestic workers, but we can also be gardener, masseuse, teacher, electrician, nurse. Some people call us Jack of all trades, and master of none.\u201dBesides Ms Rotelo, Bangladesh national Rubel Fazely, Indonesian Yulia Endang, May Thu Zin from Myanmar and Yu Ming and Zhou Zhi Wei from China also agreed to participate. Discussions between the parties began in November last year, over four Sundays. These weekly workshops allowed for open and vibrant conversations between the facilitators and curators, who revealed their joys, victories, fears and hardships.\u00a0Three of six curators Yulia Endang, May Thu Zin and Saturnina De los Santos Rotelo alongside facilitators Alfian Sa’at and Vithya Subramaniam, at the opening ceremony of the Migrant Workers Community Museum on 21 March.\u201cI was quite surprised by how segregated they were. Someone like Rubel, for example, who works in construction, for the first seven years of his life in Singapore, he did not have a single Singaporean friend. So he only knew Singaporeans as his foreman and bosses,\u201d shares Mr Alfian. \u201cThat for me was kind of mind-blowing. There\u2019s really no attempt to integrate them into society.\u201dHe cites another story from Rubel\u2019s friend, who would never sit down on public transport: \u201cWhen they first come to Singapore, they are warned, \u2018Don’t make Singaporeans upset or angry. Always be aware of what you’re doing in public,\u2019\u201d he says incredulously. \u201cSo there’s a lot of self-effacing, body-disciplining that happens. And they only will feel free if there’s a certain enclave, like Little India or Lucky Plaza. Otherwise in public, there’s always a sense that \u2018I must fold myself into something that is as unobtrusive as possible.\u2019\u201dIndian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu was crushed and killed by a bus 8 December on 2013. Passersby attacked the bus and emergency service vehicles that were thought to have arrived late to the scene, leading to them being overturned and set alight. The tragic incident has been dubbed the ‘Little India Riot’.A concerted effort was also made to avoid existing and accepted narratives around controversial events involving migrant workers, like the 2013 \u2018Little India Riot\u2019 that played to the public\u2019s negative perceptions.\u201cIf the prevailing narrative about the Little India Riot is that alcohol caused it, and we know that’s not the case, we don’t want to perpetuate that stereotype,\u201d explains Ms Vithya. \u201cWe tried to return it back to the original moment. What was crucial about that day is that someone died [Indian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu] and his friends got really upset… And so that’s the object [fact] we centre.\u201dThese bags represent those that the curators had used to bring what they thought they needed for a new life in Singapore. Yulia Endang’s on the far left was the smallest, which she says only contained some shorts and t-shirts, toiletries and personal documents, when she arrived here some 15 years ago.Everyone has baggageOn another wall below the biographies of the six curators stands a line of backpacks and suitcases, in varying styles and sizes. These might have carried the worldly possessions of their owners when they arrived in Singapore for the first time. Ms Yulia\u2019s black rucksack stands out for being the smallest. She had only packed the bare essentials for the move here, like t-shirts and shorts, toiletries and personal documents: \u201cI was worried that I won’t be able to work here, as during my time the Singapore Government requires newcomers to pass the English test; only then we can apply for the Work Permit.\u201d\u00a0Her English proficiency would prove not to be an obstacle. Since arriving nearly 15 years ago from a village in Ciamis in West Java, Indonesia, Ms Yulia has earned an English Literature degree from the Open University of Indonesia and won second prize in the Migrant Worker Poetry Competition, in 2019. She also runs a YouTube channel where she posts regular vlogs (video blog) in English and Bahasa.She was excited but also nervous to be part of the Migrant Workers Community Museum, because the topic of migrant workers was \u201ca sensitive issue\u201d.\u00a0\u201cI was a bit concerned whether I will be able to voice out our fellow migrant workers\u2019 voices accurately.\u201d But she had a good time: \u201cWe shared our experience working here, our culture and family and food. We also did some exercises conducted by facilitators. My best moment is when we laughed together.\u201dAmong a spread of photographs on a table towards the back of the gallery, Ms Yulia’s radiant smile shines from a snapshot of her with friends. Their framed faces exude a palpable strength: \u201cThere have been ups and downs, but I learned a lot too,\u201d she says. \u201cI never imagined that life here would be that easy, as we have to adapt with the differences. But all hardships and struggles that I\u2019ve been through have taught me valuable lessons.\u201dPhotos of migrant workers and their families and friends at the museum include one of Yulia Endang at the bottom left.Social worker and civil rights activist Jolovan Wham was the guest-of-honour at the opening ceremony of the Migrant Workers Community Museum on 21 March. At the start of his speech he said jokingly, “I don’t have a PA or civil servant to prepare my speech, so I shall just ramble on in my usual seditious fashion.\u201dCivil rights activist Jolovan Wham, who has actively campaigned for the rights of Singapore\u2019s migrant worker community for nearly 20 years, thinks the museum is a \u201cgood snapshot\u201d of their lives, thoughts and struggles.\u201cI think the fundamental problem hasn’t changed, which is that they’re just not treated as people with equal rights,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just use them when we need and throw them when we don’t. And the policy encourages this. It\u2019s simply because they don’t have political power… Low-wage migrants everywhere around the world will face this kind of problem. It’s not a uniquely Singaporean problem… There’s definitely a lot of erasure [of migrant workers], which is why this is powerful.\u201dFor Mr Wham, it is the replica of Mr Rubel\u2019s dormitory bunk bed that strikes the strongest chord.\u201cYou have so little space in the dorm, so everything that belongs to you in this world is contained in that bit of space. And for two people. That is quite stark for me even though I have seen these places,\u201d he shares. \u201cThis is just a sanitised version, because you have an air-conditioned gallery, but it’s symbolic of the kind of spaces that they occupy in Singapore. You\u2019re not given much space; physically, symbolically, politically, culturally, socially and mentally.\u201dThe Guide for Foreign Workers was another item that he found confronting. This booklet is given to all new arrivals to Singapore by the Ministry of Manpower. It was the first time Mr Wham had scrutinised its pages. \u201cI realised this is really classist shit. You never [give] someone with an employment pass or so-called higher-salaried migrants [a booklet] that says these are our laws, don’t break them. [It\u2019s] very condescending,\u201d he asserts.A replica of curator Rubel Fazely’s bed in his dormitory, where he has to keep everything he owns around and under him, including clothes, toiletries, food items like fresh eggs, bread and instant noodles, as well as shoes and a kettle. The locker provided to migrant workers is often too small to keep all their belongings. Pests, like cockroaches, end up being a problem.The Singapore Ministry of Manpower hands out A Guide for Foreign Workers to all migrant workers who enter Singapore to start their new jobs.Not robots but humans\u2018Courage\u2019, \u2018determination\u2019 and \u2018resilience\u2019, are words often used to describe migrant workers in the media. But at the Migrant Workers Community Museum, where an unfiltered lens presents a glimpse into their lives, these words fail to fully capture what low-waged migrants endure in order to improve the lives of loved ones.Ms Yulia says that the museum is important to showcase the contribution of migrant workers to Singapore\u2019s development: \u201cI hope visitors will get to know more about us not just in terms of the sector we are working, but as humans who have the same hobbies and activities like everyone else.\u201dWhile Ms Rotelo wishes for visitors to the museum to realise that domestic workers are humans not robots: \u201cI’m so proud that this museum was built, because I want to show people that migrants contribute to Singapore [with] our hard work…We are not just a stupid helper doing the housework, but we are extraordinary women who [can] do a lot of things…They [employers] should appreciate it\u201dShe adds, \u201cIf you love your helper, they will love you more…You care for them, they will care more for you…take care of everything inside the house, your food, your children, the family, your household.\u201dSaturnina De los Santos Rotelo (bottom centre) with her siblings and mum (in yellow), in 2012. She says that they had planned to reunite in 2022, but her mother passed away in 2020. Due to the pandemic, she was unable to return to the Philippines. (Photo courtesy of Saturnina De los Santos Rotelo)As Ms Rotelo reflects on her life in Singapore, before she returns to the Philippines for good in July, she says her biggest regret is not being able to see her parents before they died. But despite her struggles, she believes that she has accomplished her dreams since the first time she arrived here with that suitcase [displayed in the museum].\u201cEven though I never get married…I’m happy that I give my siblings and my family a good life and I sacrifice myself for that,\u201d she says.Note: The Infocomm Media Development Authority has rated the Migrant Workers Community Museum \u2018Advisory\u2019 with \u201cthe consumer advice \u2018Some Mature Content\u2019 as it contains socio-political references.\u201d To which Mr Alfian responds, \u201cI’m completely rolling my eyes, because obviously migrant labour issues are socio-political. Many art exhibitions are socio-political, the news is socio-political, but do you have a warning before it saying children please don’t watch news? I suspect this rating is slapped on [the museum], because it doesn’t parrot a lot of official narratives about migrant labour.\u201dAccording to the Arts Entertainment Classification Code, which came into effect in 2014, an “Advisory rating will be accompanied by consumer advice to enable the public, especially parents, to make an informed choice for their children.” (Source: Infocomm Media Development Authority)Join the conversations on THG’s\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram, and get the latest updates via\u00a0Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Local","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/local\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A community museum for migrant workers to be seen and heard","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/local\/a-community-museum-for-migrant-workers-to-be-seen-and-heard\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]