New Founders' Memorial exhibition showcases nation's multiculturalism

When Dr Uma Rajan entered National Gallery Singapore's City Hall Chamber on Oct 22, she felt like she had been transported back to 1959, when she had performed classical Indian dances in a multicultural concert series.

- Ng Keng Gene

Playing in the chamber was a video by animation studio Finding Pictures that reimagined the Aneka Ragam Ra'ayat (or People's Cultural Concerts), a series of performances organised by the then Ministry of Culture from 1959 to the early 1960s.

The concerts, held in various places across the island such as the Botanic Gardens and Queenstown, were put on to promote cultural exchange through song and dance by various groups in Singapore, which had then attained self-governance after more than a century of British colonial rule.

“The music in the video brought all the cultures together, so, when I walked in, all the memories kept flooding back to the days when we were teenagers, performing on an open stage to an audience seated on the floor,” said Dr Rajan, a medical doctor, who was in her late teens in 1959 when she performed at the Aneka Ragam Ra'ayat.

The video is the first exhibit in a new exhibition by the Founders' Memorial titled Not Mere Spectators: The Makings Of Multicultural Singapore, which unpacks and explores the value of multiculturalism in the country.

“Participating in Aneka Ragam Ra‘ayat helped me understand and develop myself as a true multi-ethnic Singaporean,” said Dr Rajan at a media preview of the exhibition.