Kristang is a critically endangered language and the mother tongue of the Kristang or Portuguese-Eurasians, a creole and indigenous people of Singapore, Melaka, Perth and elsewhere formed from coercive intermarriages between arriving Portuguese soldiers and local Malay residents after the conquest of Melaka in 1511 by the Portuguese. It is an intangible and priceless aspect of the community’s culture, tradition and history — a treasure unique to our region that is nevertheless facing extinction.
In Singapore, there are no official statistics on Kristang speakers. Very few children are known to be learning Kristang, and it is not taught in schools, seen on the media, or spoken in the streets. It is not used in religious services, and has no festivals. Most Singaporeans are barely aware Kristang even exists, especially because of the Kristang community’s very strong peaceful, independent, progressive and counter-institutional and authoritarian streak that has existed for nearly 200 years, since the first Kabesa of the Kristang, Adriaan Koek, sought a non-violent means of ensuring a transfer of power between the Dutch and British in Malacca in 1795.
Kodrah Kristang thus seeks to bring the language, culture, identity and Kristang way of being to a new generation of speakers and learners, and inspire others to begin to reclaim their own hidden histories and lost tongues too. Since August 2022, Kristang itself has been quietly known as Linggu Semulandu: the Resurrection Language of Pedra Draku or Pulau Ujong, and the voice of a people who are also learning how to reclaim who they truly have always been.