Pulau Berkas is a small island on the east of Pulau Pawai, and north of Pulau Senang, a part of the most southerly group of Singapore's southern islands. 'Pulau' is Malay for island or an isolated piece of rising ground in the sea. The word 'berkas' is suggestive for it carries, apart from the older definitions of 'a tied bundle','a bale of otherwise disconnected objects', and a 'bundle (of firewood, antlers)', the more modern definitions of 'to round up as criminals' and 'to arrest'. The latter definitions have connotations of crime and outlaw and point to the history of the southern islands as a pirate haunt, bringing to mind the colonial years when piracy was a serious threat to the trade of 19th century Singapore. The Orang Laut, or Sea-Jakun or sea-gypsies, were wandering coast tribes whose headquarters were the narrow straits between the islands of the Johor archipelago, defined as consisting of the innumerable islands lying between Singapore and Billiton island, which must certainly include the southern islands of Singapore, Pulau Berkas among them. When Raffles first landed on Singapore, there was a settlement of Orang Laut a little way up the Singapore River. Some are of the view that the Johor archipelago was peopled by these men of Malayan origin.

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