Pulau Seking (also known as Sakeng or Siking), is a small island about the size of ten football fields that is located just off the southern coast of Singapore. According to one legend, the island was named after a pirate queen named Keng from the Johore-Riau Archipelago, who had settled on the island with her followers sometime in the 18th century. The island’s inhabitants referred to themselves as Orang Selat (People of the Straits) or Orang Laut (People of the Sea), with some claiming to be the original inhabitants of Singapore island, while others were believed to be the descendants of pirates. The islanders lived in ‘attap’ houses built on stilts along the coastline and earned a living mostly as fishermen or workers in the Shell Eastern Petroleum oil refinery on neighbouring Pulau Bukom. The island’s inhabitants were shifted into new public flats on the mainland in 1994 to enable the conversion of the island into a landfill. The move saw many villagers abandoning their pet cats on the island, which prompted the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to step in and round up the animals. Through land reclamation works, the island eventually became part of the larger Pulau Semakau landfill, which began operations in 1999.
