Introduction: Locating Bukit Brown Cemetery

A municipal cemetery established in colonial Singapore for the ethnic Chinese community almost a century ago, Bukit Brown Cemetery has been the final resting place for a number of prominent Chinese community leaders and public personalities. With the passing of time, public knowledge of the location of these sites was gradually lost as tropical jungle reclaimed the premises. On 18 November 2017, the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) launched the Bukit Brown Wayfinder Trail to direct users to some of the more prominent ethnic Chinese community leaders and public personalities buried at the Bukit Brown Cemetery. Before the development of the WayFinder Trail, there have been several attempts to support the effort to save Bukit Brown Cemetery from being redeveloped, including developing guided walks for the public in the cemetery. Many of the tombs are either severely weathered beyond recognition or, if identifiable, are often marked with vestigial cultural-linguistic references that are unfamiliar to the contemporary public. More than the heritage value inherent in the cemetery, however, it was the government's announcement of an eight-lane expressway project that would destroy the cemetery that attracted public interest in the site. Since its announcement, citizens and civil society groups have taken action, from advocating for alternative development plans to volunteering to document the cemetery, in light of its impending end.

This chapter details one of the many attempts to support this activism and engagement of the public with the cemetery using iBBC, a mobile application (app) purposed to harness innovations in AR to assist the general public as they navigate through a densely forested area of tombstones.