Uncanny transcripts and spectral justice: multivocality and heritagising death at Bukit Brown Cemetery

This article examines the character of multivocality in the valorisation of cemeteries as heritage space. It argues that in defending the value of such deathscapes, the case for heritage and environmental justice comes to the fore in public discourse, but spectral justice is often elided. Nevertheless, the case for spectral justice emerges through uncanny transcripts, often associated with intangible heritage practices of deathscapes. This dynamic articulation of multispecies justice is elaborated on through the case of Bukit Brown Cemetery in Singapore, which was subject to partial clearing to make way for an eight-lane highway in the early 2010s. While the discursive acts of civil society focused on the heritage and environmental value of the cemetery, various memorialisation rituals performed in the cemetery during different seasons, including Qing Ming, Hungry Ghost (Zhongyuan) Festival and Winter Clothing Festival, engage the living, the dead, and the environment in a trans-worldly economy whereby the dead continue to exercise agency over the living and the environment through uncanny transcripts that sought spectral justice. Finally, this article explores the potential of art as a channel for reflecting on and engaging with the complex and uneasy intertwining of interests linked to development, deathscapes, heritage and the environment.