Yesterday, my uncle, Pak Ngah visited us at our home. He caught up with my mom and surely enough conversations about the kampung life resurfaced and the siblings reminisced about their time growing up on Pulau Ubin.
I took the opportunity to ask Pak Ngah, who also happened to be my eldest surviving maternal relative at 73 years young, if he could remember certain critical events in our family's history—and I was very happy to learn of some new information!
For the longest time, I have always wanted to track the years in which my family migrated from Pulau Tekong Besar to Pulau Ubin, and again from Pulau Ubin to mainland Singapore. This was something that only the elder relatives would remember. Prior to this, Mak Cik shared with me that the family migrated from Tekong to Ubin while my mom was still a "small baby", which narrowed it down to a window between 1959 to 1960. However, Pak Ngah was able to confirm this move to 1959, and so I could now safely ascertain the start of my family's presence on Pulau Ubin to 1959.
"Pak Ngah ingat lagi kita pindah ke Ubin tahun '59"
"I can still remember that we moved to Ubin in the year '59"
He was also able to trace back the year that the last of the family members stayed on the island, as he happened to be among them! He recalled moving together with my grandmother (Nenek), and uncles Pak Lang and Pak Busu in 1986.
"Pak Ngah pindah ke Tanah Besar sama dengan Nenek, Pak Lang, Pak Busu. Tahun tu '86, Pak Ngah pun belum kahwin lagi waktu tu. Tapi sebab diorang ajak kita, kita pun ikut"
"I moved to the mainland together with Nenek, Pak Lang, Pak Busu. That was in '86, I still haven't married yet at the time. But since they (his siblings) invited us, we just followed"
Prior to this, my mom and other relatives could not remember the exact year that the family was last living on the island, as most have resettled on the mainland briefly after marriage, only coming back to the island to visit their mom and brothers. My mom had initially dated this move to 1990, as she recalled Nenek only living on the mainland for a brief moment before she passed away in 1992.
Nonetheless, Pak Ngah's claim of 1986 has encouraged me to dig deeper, and make more cross-references with the family and community, to ascertain the last date of our presence on Pulau Ubin, which for now ranges between 1986 to 1990.
May Allah SWT grant me wisdom and guidance as I continue to learn more about my family's heritage as Ubin Orang Pulau.
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