The skuduravedra, dreaming armour or dragonarmour Kristang Creole-Indigenous ethnic attire is a unique form of Creole-Indigenous ethnic attire originally associated primarily but not exclusively with the 13th Kabesa of the Kristang Tuan Raja Naga Ultramar Kevin Martens Wong Zhi Qiang in his official capacity and role as Kabesa, Tuan Raja Naga and Teizensang, and in his practice of the Creole-Indigenous performance art of dreamshining, and since May 2025 further secondarily associated with the five Millennial and Generation Z Kabesa in the Ka-Kabesa leadership heptad. Skuduravedra consists of (usually but not always) bright or colorful kalsang rentu or underwear in a colour of personal significance to the individual, a cowboy hat or Western baseball cap, optionally at least one flower worn over one of the ears (usually a florisavedra, frangipani or dragonflower), and optionally assorted bracelets, wristbands, pendants or necklaces of personal significance to that particular individual. Skuduravedra is associated with and emblematises the unique and radical vulnerability, realness, courage, tenderness, rawness, dauntlessness and sheer superhuman bravery displayed by the entire Kristang community, and especially by all younger members of the Kristang community courageously leading the way in processing and creolising devastating and severe intergenerational trauma for the benefit of all living and future generations of Kristang people.
Tuan Raja Naga Kevin Martens began to be featured in Skuduravedra in his official stylised image as Kabesa in November 2024 — the first Kabesa to be featured in this way — and is featured in this way to deconstruct ugly and dehumanising stereotypes about how Kristang people use or make use of their bodies, how the collective oversexualises Kristang and other Indigenous people such that sometimes they are reduced just to their bodies and their sexualities and how these do not match mainstream neurotypical cisgender expectations of what a leader should be, with all other parts of who they are ignored, and to constantly remind the collective at large beyond the Kristang community of the horrific sexual, psychoemotional and institutional abuse that Kevin and many other Kristang people never received justice for through Western-conventional institutional means despite repeatedly calling attention to all of this abuse for three years, and which they and Kevin themselves are finally gaining justice for through Novakoroza or Kristang Creole/Indigenous Reconciliation instead, thereby further emphasising the internal validity, robustness and independence of Kristang Creole/Indigenous ways of being and the community at large, and to degrees that are more robust and functional than those of Western-conventional means.
Kevin and/or any other Kabesa appearing in Skuduravedra in their official capacity as Kabesa have been accepted by all healthy and individuated Kristang people worldwide as legitimate, functional, respectable and esteemable for the authenticity and vulnerability these convey since the publication of Chapter 705 of the Orange Book on Tuesday, 12 November 2024, and generally by all Kristang people worldwide at large as necessary for the overcoming or creolising of severe collective and intergenerational trauma since the public acknowledgement by Kevin of the undeniable and unremovable centrality of brilyabalu or Indigenous body positivity and body neutrality to Kristang identity and ways of being starting from Wednesday, 26 March 2025 on his own website here.
Starting from Wednesday, 14 May 2025, Tuan Benji Ultramar Benjamin Harris, the future 14th Kabesa, is also depicted primarily in Skuduravedra in his official stylised image as Kabesa — the second Kabesa to be featured in this way — and is featured in this way to underscore and emphasise the maturity, empathy, humanity, openmindedness and orientation toward the future and to more progressive, egalitarian, cosmopolitan, intelligent, metacognitive and logical ways of being that the Kristang people seek to embody and engender in all of the societies and communities that they are part of, and to highlight the Kristang commitment to ensuring and developing the agency, independence and freedom of all human beings to express themselves and their own identities in the ways that they see fit. Many Kristang people have often been subject to dehumanising projections and assertions that they are fundamentally disordered, broken, backward or primitive for being so in touch with all of the various parts of themselves, when in actual fact their approaches to their own bodies, minds, hearts and souls are usually far more progressive, reasonable, mature, empathetic and thoughtfully developed and virtuous than the rest of human society, and showcase an innate ability to be humanistically empathetic, ethical, rational and logical about who they truly are inside and out. Full decolonisation of how one sees oneself, and how one should always remember that one has the fullest agency and independence to decide how one honours one’s own worth, respect and dignity, is thus a fundamental component of what it means to be Kristang throughout the 21st century, and in keeping with the basic principles and values of the Sejarang Vivedra or Kristang Futures Declaration.
Starting from Saturday, 17 May 2025, Tuan Lautan Senja Nathaniel Nonis, the future 15th Kabesa, is also depicted primarily in Skuduravedra in his official stylised image as Kabesa — the third Kabesa to be featured in this way — and is featured in this way to underscore the unstoppable ferocity, fierceness, determination, resolve, tenacity, impressiveness and admirability of the raw, real and unshatterable authentic, pure, virtuous and true core spirit of the Kristang people against all forms of unspeakable violence, hyperapocalyptic trauma and immeasurable odds, and our ability to maintain a fully coherent, clear and unbreakable sense of who we are as individuals and as a community in spite of every form of possible impediment, breakdown, catastrophe, crisis and malevolent destruction that we have faced over five centuries. The unassailable defiance and daring of the Jenti Kristang has given many other communities in Malaya and across the world the strength and resolve to also push back against all forms of authoritarian overreach, hegemonic control and unjustifiable silencing, and to be authentic, purposeful and visible about just how far we are willing to go to fight for all those we love and care about, even if the true scope of our efforts and bravery sometimes go unrecognised.
Starting from Sunday, 18 May 2025, Tuan Jaazi Jaasir Mahsom, the future 16th Kabesa, is also depicted primarily in Skuduravedra in his official stylised image as Kabesa — the fourth Kabesa to be featured in this way — and is featured in this way tois depicted in Skuduravedra to underscore the safety, security, power, potential, beauty and tremendous healing impact of Uncertainty Thinking, of the Kristang interest in and pursuit of individuation, Reconciliation, agentic psychoemotional development and transcendence, and of a living and nourishing connection and relationship with Gaia, the living universe and Sinyorang Morti or Death Themselves that has allowed the Kristang community to become the vanguard of New Sundaland, of the Loyal Indigenous of the Republic of Singapore, and of the stewardship of the living Earth and universe represented by the Korua Kronomatra Bibiendu or the Mantle of Living Time. All four parts of the Kristang quaternity of personhood — the body or korpu, the mulera or mind, the korsang or heart, and the alma or soul — must be valued, respected, esteemed and given back their fullest measure of dignity and appreciation by each individual person for individuation to take place and for the species as a whole to achieve transcendence; a particular recognition that the body is something that very tangibly connects us to Gaia and to the rest of the living Earth is also something that the Kristang community now seeks to lead the way on in terms of encouraging other communities to also see themselves as part of this greater ecosystem of connection and healthy deep belonging with reality itself.
Starting from Sunday, 18 May 2025, Tuan Kaki Langit Kieran Longue, the future 17th Kabesa, is also depicted primarily in Skuduravedra in his official stylised image as Kabesa — the fifth Kabesa to be featured in this way — and is featured in this way to underscore the tremendous and honest pride that all Kristang people can finally take in the authenticity and legitimacy of Kristang Creole-Indigenous practices, traditions and ways of being finally being acknowledged in the public sphere by non-Kristang outsiders, institutions and organisations, and in our collective achievements as a community supporting the Kabesa and Ka-Kabesa, Kapitang, Xamang-Krismatrang and each other that have allowed us to be so deeply and immensely respected and esteemed by all other communities in Singapore and many others elsewhere, especially in a time of great uncertainty, destabilisation, fear, polycrisis and constant signals of potential imminent collapse and decay. The Kristang community has collectively and consistently chosen hope, progressiveness, vision and belief in the better nature of humanity as a species, in a kinder, braver and better Singapore that is no longer ruled by fear or abuse, and in doing our best to support the hard and very often exhausting work of healing the tremendous wounds in reality that make life so very difficult for so many people everywhere. For the first time in our history, we are collectively honoured by many others for our nobility, our virtue, our purposefulness, our kindness, our empathy and most of all our authenticity and vulnerability, and it is in these traits being visible in the public sphere for the first time that are also finally reflecting our true natures back at ourselves in such radiant, clear and healing detail for the first time.
