In all senses of the word, one could say that Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) stands out as a very different place compared to the rest of Singapore—it is encapsulating, inclusive, and holds different meanings and purposes for different people. GUI is a 21st century kampung with a mission to foster deep and meaningful connections, to ourselves, to the earth, and to each other. These people-to-people connections are facilitated by nature—our best teacher—and we call our space Kampung Kampus. Yet, since I started volunteering, I have known that our home is destined to be buried under four feet of soil and earth for future public housing. As you read this, developers are raising the ground to mitigate against future floods. Construction happens almost every day—relentless—even Sundays. Don't they ever rest? No: the incessant call to expand and build up and redevelop courses through this country.
Whereas land at 91 Lorong Chencharu had been the defining characteristic of the organisation, from the very genesis of GUI, 16 years ago. Backpacking in 35 countries across 5 continents, our late founder Tay Lai Hock came to the realisation that human happiness arises and is nurtured via interactions with nature. He deeply resonated with Leo Tolstoy’s quote that “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken”. It’s an invitation to soberly ponder what Lai Hock realised: in Singapore, we have broken that connection with the earth. Worse, land has become "property", "asset" and "rental income"—not something social and communal, not a base for galvanizing efforts in a unit several scales larger than one's nuclear family.
Out of this need to reconnect city dwellers with the earth, GUI was manifested—a natural space belonging to, built up and maintained by a community, where people can freely conceive things and adapt along the way. Scholars Diana Benjumea, Yohei Kato and Chong Keng Hua observed that despite the impressive green infrastructure in Singapore, surges in mental health-related problems hint at limitations in current methods of reconnecting people with the natural environment. They posited that it was far more important that initiatives reform the current system of valuing nature as commodity, or nature as something to be controlled to make way for development. Instead of human-nature interconnectedness from a limited anthropocentric and extractive viewpoint, GUI introduces alternative social-ecological values through its nature placemaking programmes that encourages participants to become entangled with the natural environment.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer laments the loss of indigenous ways of knowing, as immigrants took over native American land, and imposed their systems of objective, scientific knowledge and hierarchy of values of men’s dominion over nature. Kimmerer asserts that it was time for the immigrant, the visitor to become “naturalised to place”, which means to live “as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit”. Reading this years ago, I was very moved and pondered on its relevance to Singapore.
How should we act as sons and daughters of immigrants? What should we do to educate ourselves of the land's living, breathing, functioning existence? We may already be Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents, or Long-Term Pass-Holders to the sovereign nation of Singapore, but how can we truly become naturalised to the land, this place, to be welcomed by these islands' original inhabitants—both human and nonhuman?
Luckily, the earth has always loved and cared for us. Studies have found that contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, can help boost emotional health, mental well-being and even our immune system, as it triggers the release of serotonin—a happy chemical—in our brains. It’s a scientific way of quantifying the importance of connection. In GUI, the whole idea and materiality of ‘soil’ is crucial. Soil is a life-giving substance for young seedlings, organisms in the ecosystems, and also for ourselves. We have a common saying—‘farm your heart’, for it is through farming that gives back to and nourishes the earth, that we can also re-entangle ourselves with the natural flows and rhythms of the land.
I know now the ingredients are coexistence, mutual respect, and finding tangible places to sink roots into and nurture reciprocal relationships with the land and waters. I know now, the answer lies in a willingness to touch soil, dirt, microbiomes, earthworms, flowers, wood, dried leaves and the rich brown humus… and let the microbial richness ground our hearts and touch us too.
Posted 04/09/2025
