Beyond the Stereotypes:
A review of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers
and the Arts in Wales - Yvonne Cheal
August 2012
http://www.romaniarts.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Beyond-the-Stereotypes.pdf
Beyond the Stereotypes:
A review of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers
and the Arts in Wales
Yvonne Cheal
August 2012
1
CONTENTS
Page
1.0 Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Image A: Dark-haired exotic women in colourful skirts, dancing sensuously by campfires
under the open skies and playing the tambourine. Men with dark flashing eyes
which glint in the firelight, wildly playing the fiddle … an element of danger …
they travel in decorated caravans, carefree spirits, stopping only to tell fortunes
with crystal balls or Tarot cards. Proud, fiery and independent people, travelling
at whim, enjoying the freedom of the open road with their extended family.
‘Of a sudden her eyes blazed again and you were solely conscious of a beautiful
wild creature.’ [Francis Hindes Groome, in Okely 1983]
Image B: Hordes of asylum-seeking Gypsy thieves are overrunning our welfare state
and using their children as props to beg money on our streets … On Monday,
the Sun announced "victory" for the 52,876 readers who supported its "Britain
Has Had Enough" campaign to rid the nation of Gypsy beggars. ("Labour
research," the article claims, "shows begging refugees is voters' third-most
important issue after health and education.")
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/mar/24/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in Britain today have an unenviable task when faced with the
above images, as the first one they can’t live up to, and the second they can never live down.
Since their first appearance in Europe in the fourteenth century, Gypsies have been an emotive
subject, and themselves subject to centuries of prejudice, persecution and discrimination. As
the Voice Literary Review states, `Everyone has an opinion on Gypsies, and no one knows any.
The opinions are almost always bad.’ While Gypsies/Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority,
they remain the least integrated and the most persecuted people of Europe today. Yet the
Romani culture and language, whilst not always recognised as so doing, has formed part of
Europe's cultural and linguistic heritage for over 500 years. During these centuries
Gypsies/Roma were at best little understood, and mostly misunderstood. At worst they were
the victims of racism, violence and the death penalty (for the crime of being a Gypsy); of
various policies of exclusion, containment and forced assimilation; of social ostracism and
eventually mass extermination as part of Hitler's Final Solution.
Yet in spite of the worst injustices that humanity can throw at them, Gypsies/Roma have
demonstrated a remarkable facility for survival [12 million worldwide], an ability to adapt to
the vagaries of settled populations, governments and laws, and above all they have retained
their distinct language, culture and identity. However, the question of ‘identity’ is itself
problematic, as Gypsy/Roma identity has been forged through non-Roma means, such as
literature, art, film and academic research. As a result, one of the main problems faced by
Gypsies/Roma now is that of the stereotypes, good and bad, foisted upon them.
Jake Bowers[G] runs the Gypsy Media Company and is a professional journalist. He says: It's a
complex issue: the settled community looks at us through a prism of stereotypes. The two main
Gypsy stereotypes are the thief (or degenerate) who contributes nothing, or the romantic Gypsy,
unmaterialistic and carefree, who wanders down country lanes with a tambourine.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/02/4
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The most common stereotypes are the ‘sexy Gypsy’; ‘Gypsy fortune teller’; ‘folklore/rural
Gypsy’; ‘rhapsodic/dancing Romany’; ‘Gypsy thief/beggar’; ‘uneducated Gypsy’; and the ‘Gypsy
carefree lifestyle’ [see http://thegypsychronicles.net/gypsystereotypes-aspx/]. In reality, most
Gypsies/Roma would prefer to tell you about the suffering and persecution they and/or their
ancestors have endured, and to ask you to join the fight against ignorance, prejudice and
stereotyping. Dr. Adrian Marsh[G], an English Gypsy, notes: Like beauty, the image of the various
peoples described as Gypsies is frequently to be found in the eyes of the beholder […]
re-presenting the Gypsy using tropes we have come to expect – excessively poor, often itinerant,
ignorant and under-educated, disenfranchised politically and marginalised economically, socially
excluded and culturally appreciated in a very narrow context. (Marsh, 2008)
The romanticised image of the Gypsy is alive and well in songs, literature, music groups, fancydress
costumes and other forms of cultural imagery. A Wikipedia entry on fictional
representations of Romani people has an extensive list of Gypsies represented in film (from
1897), literature (from Shakespeare in 1596), games and other media. These are examples of
popular culture and do not include the works of the ‘Gypsy scholars’ in the nineteenth century,
or of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ‘orientalists’, which would extend the list into
hundreds of examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_representations_of_Romani_people. It also
does not include the hundreds of Gypsies/Roma depicted in art over many centuries, including
examples by Caravaggio, Vincent van Goch, Augustus John and Renoir. Dr. Ian Hancock[G],
Director of Romani Studies at the University of Texas, commented at the GRT National
Symposium 2012 held in Cardiff that the romantic Gypsy image proliferated in nineteenthcentury
literature, and that was ‘a safe place to leave it’.
2.0 AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF REVIEW
The aim of this review is therefore to review Gypsy/Roma/Traveller (GRT) ‘issues’ as they
currently stand in Wales, by providing some background context on Gypsies and Roma, and to
assess where links are currently being made with the Arts. It will also place the Gypsies of
Wales in their historical context, with particular reference to music and the links between
Welsh Gypsies and Welsh traditional music. The extent of Arts Council of Wales funding for
GRT projects over recent years will be reviewed to assess whether the objectives of the Arts
Council and the needs of GRT communities are being met. Hopefully information will be as
clear as possible for use by grant assessors, allowing them to move beyond the stereotypes
that cause such problems for GRT communities.
It must be borne in mind that reports on GRT subjects are invariably delivered by non-Gypsy
institutions with a view to dovetailing their conclusions with the latest ‘citizenship’ and ‘social
inclusion’ policies. National and international policy-makers seek to establish a (non-Gypsy)
framework in which to construct narratives of ethnicity and identity, and this is no less so the
case in Wales.
While this review has less grand ambitions, it does fall into the same category of being
produced by a non-Gypsy for a non-Gypsy organisation. Therefore it was important to seek
the views of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers wherever possible. Interviews have been carried out with
a range of individuals who are either Gypsy/Roma/Travellers themselves, or who work closely
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with GRT communities. Individual responses are not always explicitly identified throughout the
text, as some of the interviewees wished to retain their anonymity in order to speak freely. This
has been respected and, whether an interviewee is identified or not, it is noted whether the
comment is made by a Gypsy or a non-Gypsy by means of a superscript[G] or [NG]. Those who
work with GRT communities (such as liaison officers or educationalists) have been identified
with a superscript [GW].
3.0 TERMINOLOGY & DEFINITIONS
Almost all terms referring to Gypsies have been given to them by outsiders, with many
different derivations and translations in different countries. A confusion also exists due to the
great diversity of groups and subgroups with different names worldwide. The following
generally-accepted definitions and terms have been used in this review.
‘Traveller’ refers to anyone with a nomadic way of life and applies to anybody living in
vehicles such as caravans, buses or campervans. Travellers are divided into two groups:
(1) ethnic travellers such as Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, and (2) those who live on the
road for economic or ideological reasons, such as New Age Travellers and Showmen.
There are two legal definitions of ‘Gypsy’: (1) a recognised ethnic minority under the Race
Relations Act, and (2) under planning law, people with a culture of nomadism or of living in
caravans and all other persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin. The
communities recognised as distinct ethnic minorities are English or Welsh Romany Gypsies,
Irish Travellers and Scottish Gypsy Travellers. To achieve this designation communities have to
prove that they meet the following conditions, known as the ‘Mandla Criteria’:
• Long shared history
• Cultural tradition of their own
• Common geographical origin
• Common language
• Common tradition
• Common religion
• Being a minority or being oppressed by a dominant group within a large community
Gadjé Plural noun – Romani word for non-Roma or non-Gypsy.
Gaujo/Gorgio Anglicized versions of the Romani word for a non-Gypsy.
Gadjikane Romani adjective for non-Romani/foreign.
Gypsy An abbreviation of the word `Egyptian', a name given to
the Romany people in the Middle Ages when it was thought
they originated in Egypt. Anglicized version, used in preference
to the alternatives of Gipsy, gypsy or gipsy.
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Kalé Gypsies The branch of Roma that settled in Wales and continued to
speak pure Romanés.
Nomad 1. A pastoral nomad, moving with flocks.
2. A commercial nomad, moving to find work.
Pavee The name used for themselves by Irish Travellers.
Porrajmos Romani word meaning ‘the Devouring’ = the Holocaust.
Rom/Roma The name used for themselves by the majority of Gypsies in
Europe.
Rom = singular noun for person/man/husband
Roma = plural noun for people
The word ‘Rom’ has only one linguistic reference; in Ancient
Egyptian ‘Rom’ = Man.
European Roma Recognised as an ethnic minority in the same category as
British Gypsies who also speak Romani. However, they are
distinct from the UK’s Gypsy community, with limited
interaction between the two groups. Many immigrants have
come to Britain from long-settled communities in Eastern
Europe.
Romanichal Noun – Romani word for British Gypsies.
Romany Noun – anglicized version of the word `Rom/Romanichal'
referring to British Gypsies. First recorded in Britain in 1547.
Recognised as an ethnic group for the purposes of the
Race Relations Act (1976) in 1988. In Britain, Romanies are
further subdivided into English Gypsies/Romanies, Welsh
Gypsies/Romanies and Scottish Gypsies/Romanies. These
divisions refer to the regions where incoming Gypsies
traditionally settled. As Irish Travellers are distinct from these
groups ethnically, they were not originally referred to as
Gypsies or Romanies.
Romani Adjective – as in Romani language, history, culture.
Romani/Romanés Noun – the spoken language of the Romany people.
Traveller 1. Irish nomads of Celtic descent speaking Cant, Gammon or
Shelta. First recorded in Britain in the 1850’s. Recognised as an
ethnic group for the purposes of the Race Relations Act (1976)
in 2000.
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2. Scottish Gypsy Travellers, made up of a range of different
groups and may refer to themselves as Scottish Travellers,
Scottish Gypsies, Nawkens or Nachins. May also speak Cant.
Recognised as an ethnic group for the purposes of the Race
Relations Act (1976) in 2008.
3. An overall term, applied indiscriminately, covering Romany
Gypsies as well as Irish and Scottish Travellers.
New-Age Traveller Members of the settled community who have taken up a
nomadic lifestyle in recent decades, with no history of
travelling or links to ethnic Romany or Traveller families.
Originating in the Peace Convoy and free-festival movements
of the 1960s, these are people wishing to live an alternative
travelling lifestyle for ideological reasons.
Occupational Traveller Includes showmen or fairground and circus people who have a
long history of travelling for a living. This group also includes
bargees or boat dwellers living primarily on narrowboats.
Showmen are a cultural minority that have owned and
operated funfairs and circuses for many generations, but are
not classed as an ethnic minority as their identity is connected
to their family businesses and the community can include
‘outsiders’.
Kenrick & Bakewell (1995) have divided Gypsies within the U.K, into five main groups:
(1) The Romanies – descendants of the Romanies who came to England in the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This group includes house-dwelling families in England
and Wales. They previously spoke Romani, but now speak an anglicized Anglo-Romani dialect.
(2) The Kalé of North Wales – descendants of the (mainly) Wood family who migrated from
south-west England to Wales in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and who spoke the
best-preserved inflected Romani until recent years.
(3) The Roma – Gypsies who have come to England from Europe this century, some of whom
speak Romani as their main language.
(4) Irish Travellers – a nomadic ethnic group from Ireland (non-Romani speaking).
(5) Scottish Travellers – a nomadic group formed in Scotland in the period 1500-1800 from
intermarriage between local nomadic craftsmen and immigrant Gypsies.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sources: Kenrick & Bakewell (1995); Travellers Aid Trust www.travellersaidtrust.org; Travellers’ Times magazine
http://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/downloads/lifestyle_history_and_culture_24052010111520.pdf
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4.0 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The history of the Roma people (or perceived lack of it) has a direct influence on GRT
communities in the UK today. There has been a great deal of speculation, research and
discussion on the origins of the Roma people, with a traditional consensus that they originated
in north-west India. Some of the initial connections between Romani and Indian languages
were highlighted by Johann Rüdiger, a German scholar, in 1782 and traditional explanations of
Roma origins and early migrations since that date have favoured the north-west India theory,
based mainly on linguistic research. An Indian connection has been contested by academics,
however, and despite many centuries of research, the results are still inconclusive; but there
are certain important recurring themes in the history of the Roma which have ‘been
incorporated into the notions of self-identity for a large number of Gypsy groups’ (Marsh,
2008).
Research into the origins and history of the Roma is therefore ongoing but it is precisely this
lack of clarity that adds to the confusion over who/what Roma people are and how they
should be treated within individual countries. Many Roma are not aware themselves of their
history and over centuries have been unable to say definitively who/what they are or where
they are from. Instead they relied on inherited traditions, customs and lifestyles, and remained
largely within extended family groups. As their collective memory is transmitted as an oral
tradition, only fragments of written evidence about these people are found in records of the
non-Roma. When questioned, suspicion of the enquirers’ motives often led to disingenuous
replies from Roma/Gypsies seeking to protect their traditions and lifestyle. This lack of a wellrecognised
history and clear ethnic identity has led to misunderstanding and misapprehension
of Roma/Gypsies, and to research that concentrates on resolving ‘problems’ or dealing with
the social inclusion of a group that often wished to remain deliberately excluded.
So on the one hand there is a body of research by organisations such as the Research and
Action Group on Romani Linguistics, set up by the European Commission, which produces
research and documentation under the auspices of the Gypsy Research Centre at the
Université René Descartes in Paris. This research centre, formed at the request of the Council
of Europe, undertakes various studies and produces books, magazines, information
documents, and reports, on all aspects of the current Roma/Gypsy situation in Europe. On the
other hand, research into Romani history has been undertaken increasingly by Gypsies/Roma
themselves, and particularly over the past decade a growing body of Romani-led research has
appeared, and is continually being augmented.
Of interest to this review is how Gypsies, and then subsequently Irish Travellers and European
Roma, ended up in Wales. Below is the traditional version of events, updated at 4.5 with
current hypotheses and contentions and at 7.0 with how Gypsies arrived in Wales.
4.1 Who are the Gypsies?
Present-day Gypsies consist of many different groups, `tribes' and families scattered
throughout almost every country in the world. Many of these groups speak Romani (or a
Romani dialect) besides the language of the country in which they travel or reside, and most
retain certain distinct customs and traditions. However, as Fraser (1995) points out, `If a people
is a group of men, women and children with a common language, a common culture and a
8
common racial type, who can be readily distinguished from their neighbours, it is a long time
since the Gypsies were that.' During centuries of travel, the Gypsies have become a highly
dispersed and a highly diverse people, in many countries becoming confused with the ethnic
itinerant group(s), and in many countries suffering from conflicting legal definitions as to who
is, or is not, a Gypsy for purposes of the law.
4.2 Where did they come from?
Gypsies/Roma have always been perceived as a nomadic people, seemingly wandering from
place to place, and with no homeland of their own. After their arrival in Europe in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they most often claimed to be ‘Egyptians’, which obscured
their true origins for three or four centuries. Linguistic research finally identified that the
Romani language was closely related to Hindi. Further studies during the nineteenth century
concluded that the language must have originated in north-west India, which effectively
pinpointed their land of origin as present-day Pakistan. Other linguistic evidence suggested
that they left India over a thousand years ago, as their language is more closely related to
Sanskrit than to other contemporary Indian languages.
On the basis of linguistic analysis, it is possible to reconstruct the route that the Gypsies/Roma
took on their westward journey to Europe. They migrated to the Persian Empire via Kabulistan,
Iran and Armenia, reaching the Byzantine Empire by way of Phyrgia and Laconia (Tomasevic &
Djuric, 1989). It seems that they spent a relatively stable period in Armenia and later in Greece,
before moving into central Europe. It is important to note that `at no time did they move in a
solid mass from east to west but their pattern of migration was probably similar to that of
today with one family group overtaking another, according to local circumstances and
opportunity for work,' (Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995).
It is from their time in Greece that one explanation of the `Egyptian' origin arises: `Alexander,
Count Palatine by Rhine, described a hill near Modon [in the Peloponnese] called Gype, which
in 1495 had about 200 huts inhabited by Gypsies: "some call this hill and its appurtenances
Little Egypt",' (Fraser, 1995). When Gypsies began to reach western European towns and cities,
they claimed they were from Little Egypt, which began the myth of their Egyptian origin and
provided the name by which they are most generally known today.
A second possible explanation was provided by Sebastian Münster in his Chronographia
Universalis of 1550 who also suggested an ‘Egyptian’ origin, but with Lesser Egypt being
located in the Gangetic or Indus regions (McLean, 2007).
A third possible explanation is outlined below at 4.5.
4.3 Why did they come?
Kenrick (1993) places the departure from India of the majority of the ancestors of the
European Romanies as taking place at various times between 250 and 650 AD. Whilst there is
no conclusive evidence to explain why the Gypsies/Roma left India, there are many plausible
explanations connected with successive invasions of the north-western region. Following the
capture of north India by the Persians, thousands of labourers were brought from India to
Persia by Shapur I between 241 and 272 AD. The Shah of Persia brought 12,000 musicians and
dancers to Persia between 420 and 438 AD and 10,000 1ute players were brought in 1011 to
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Shengil (Kenrick, 1993). Three legendary conquerors followed the Persian invasions – Mahmud,
Genghis Khan and Tamerlane – and many scholars believe that these three invaders caused
mass movements of the Gypsies/Roma, and impelled many of them to leave India (Tomasevic
& Djuric, 1989). There is also a suggestion that even earlier movements were caused by the
inroads of Alexander the Great into north-western India in 327-326 BC (Fraser, 1995).
After leaving India, the groups moved from country to country, stopping for varying periods in
each, but constantly moving on to avoid the frequent wars and conflicts they encountered,
until staying for fairly lengthy periods in Armenia and Greece. It is important to note that they
were not pastoral nomads, but on their travels the groups continued to practice the crafts and
trades they had followed in India as a means of economic survival, as well as adopting and
adapting trades from the countries through which they travelled.
4.4 Who are European Gypsies?
By the fourteenth century Gypsies/Roma were appearing in many western European towns
and villages, with their path following a general east-to-west route. The first written mention
of Gypsies/Roma in France was recorded in 1419, in Spain 1425, and in Britain 1505. They
travelled in large family groups, usually under the leadership of a `king' or `count' and carried
letters of recommendation or documents of safe-conduct from various dukes, kings, princes
and heads of State. In 1422 a group of Gypsies/Roma arriving in Basle produced letters of
safe-conduct from the Pope. They most often claimed to be on a religious pilgrimage and at
this time `it was still considered a duty to entertain the pilgrim and help him on his journey'
(Fraser, 1995). For purposes of trade and expediency, the Gypsies/Roma usually learned the
language of any country in which they stayed for any time, and usually adopted the religion of
that country. They generally made a living as craft workers and entertainers.
However, they were not always welcome and were often suspected of espionage. Arriving in
countries at a time when the state was attempting to bring order and control, the
Gypsies/Roma were treated with mistrust, fear and rejection. `This rejection, localized at first,
rapidly became a state affair with the passing of royal edicts condemning and banishing the
Roma on pain of corporal punishment' (Liegeois & Gheorghe, 1995). Within a relatively short
space of time, Gypsies/Roma were subject to penal servitude, slavery, expulsion orders, Gypsy
hunts and a variety of other medieval anti-Gypsy legislation, including the death penalty for
the sole crime of being a Gypsy. With very little evidence, Gypsies were often accused of
crimes and a `negative image was deliberately stressed in order to serve as a basis and
justification for repressive measures'.
Anti-Gypsy legislation was gradually repealed after 1780: `Tolerated when they were useful as
farm labour, blacksmiths or entertainers, made to move on when their services were no longer
needed, the Gypsies survived on the margins of society until the outbreak of World War II'
(Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995). By this time, the `German preoccupation' of suspected espionage
was still being quoted as a justification for genocide (see Kenrick & Puxon 1972 for a full
account of Gypsy treatment under the Nazi regime). However, despite estimates of over
500,000 Gypsies having been murdered by the Nazis, the Gypsy/Roma populations throughout
the whole of Europe are today conservatively numbered at 9.8 million [‘average estimates’ of
the Council of Europe, 2007], bearing in mind that many Gypsies/Roma do not self-identify
themselves as such in order to avoid discrimination and prejudice.
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These populations are extremely diverse; made up of different groups, subgroups and
extended families and with their language splintered into a myriad of dialects, creoles and
regional variations. Their social organisation has been described as `a worldwide mosaic of
diversified groups' (Liegeois, 1994). However, the majority of these groups were born in
Europe, as were their ancestors, and besides their group, subgroup or family name, each group
is also classified as a French Gypsy, Spanish Gypsy, Italian Gypsy or British Gypsy, depending
on where they were born or reside. Whilst there are Spanish Gypsies living in France, and
British Gypsies working in Germany to add to the general confusion, there can be no doubt
that these Gypsies are a people of Europe: `... the long association and intermingling with
other peoples in Europe have indelibly marked their language, their ancestry, their culture and
their society. After so many centuries, they have every claim to be considered "of Europe".
They are indeed among the continent's few pan-Europeans' (Fraser, 1995).
4.5 Current theories
Dr. Ian Hancock[G], speaking at the GRT National Symposium 2012 in Cardiff, provided an
update on current thinking with regard to research on the Roma. He pointed out that the
research into origins is still extremely important, as Roma people are still unable to explain
where they are from, and non-Roma therefore remain vague and unable to ‘pigeonhole’
Gypsy/Roma groups. Lack of clarity leads to stereotypical images being augmented and
romanticised, and to incomprehension regarding traditions and taboos which affect
Gypsy/Roma culture and lifestyles today. The summarised points of current theories are:
Researchers are now learning much more about Roma origins, and the current estimate
of Roma populations is 12 million worldwide.
‘A geneticist’s summary of [our] data would describe the Gypsies as a conglomerate of
Asian populations … unambiguous proof of the Indian ancestry of the Gypsies comes
from three genetic marker systems … found on the same ancestral chromosomal
background in Gypsy, Indian and Pakistani subjects’ (Kalaydjieva et al, 2005).
It is now thought that the Roma began as a composite people from India, but they
were not originally one people. Instead, the population was occupationally rather than
ethnically-defined, being drawn from mercenary soldiers, camp followers, itinerant
castes of artisans and entertainers, musicians and dancers, smiths, metalworkers, basket
weavers, etc.
The language has been identified as a composite of different Indian languages, which
would support this theory, with development of Romanés as an individual language
happening through ‘contact’ with other cultures and languages outside India.
Whilst their earliest components are traceable to India in the East, Roma essentially
constitute a population that acquired its identity and language in the West. The idea
that Roma had Indian roots, but crystallised into a cohesive people during the
Byzantine period is now gaining credence. The self-ascribed name ‘Rom/Roma’ is from
the Greek-speaking, Christian, Byzantine Empire and was acquired during the
population’s long stay in Anatolia. ‘Any originally acquired characteristics they might
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still share … are greatly outweighed by characteristics accreted from the non-Romani
world.’ There is no longer one people in India clearly related to the Roma.
Dr. Adrian Marsh[G] (2008) states: ‘The argument that they were ‘forged’ in the
borderlands of Anatolia between the hammer of the Saldjūk Turks and the anvil of the
Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century is becoming more widely accepted, though not
uncontested.’
Dates for leaving India remain contested, with the earliest migrations seemingly dating
from the time of Alexander the Great’s incursions, and successive migrations coinciding
with other military incursions. However, the main exodus appears to be between AD
997 and 1030 as a result of invasions by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, ruler of the Persian
Ghaznavid Empire. This dislocated the ‘composite’ groups from north-west India
[Pakistan] who migrated to the Persian Empire via Kabulistan [Afghanistan], Iran and
Armenia, before reaching (1) Anatolia [Turkey]; (2) Jordan and the Levant coast; and (3)
the Byzantine Empire [eastern Roman Empire whose capital was Constantinople].
Byzantine sources refer to Roma as Athínganoi (people who practised ritual purity
ablutions, and who practised magic, soothsaying and snake-charming) and Aiguptoi
(‘Egyptians’ – people who maintained similar pollution taboos, and who practised
sorcery and divination). These two terms are the root of all designations assigned to
Gypsies by non-Roma.
Athínganoi the terms Cigány, Tsigan, Zingaro, etc.
Aiguptoi the terms Aigypt[an]oi, Gypsy, Gitano, etc.
(Marsh, 2008 and Avraham, 2012)
The arrival of Roma in Jordan and the Levant coincides with the period when the
region was controlled by the Fatemide Egyptians (late 900s to 1070 AD).
The entry of the Roma into Europe from Anatolia was not as a single exodus, but as a
number of smaller migrations over as much as a two-century timespan, leading to a
splintering across European countries. This accounts in part for the lack of cohesiveness
among the various groups in Europe self-identifying as Roma, and for the major dialect
splits within the language.
The first wave travelled the furthest, reaching Britain, Scandinavia and Spain. The
second wave reached ‘less far’, to central Europe. The third wave reached only as far as
the Balkans, where many Roma were held in slavery.
As the Roma arrived in Europe as different groups, they therefore hold different
notions about self-identity and divide into different factions. There are also different
levels and retention of Romani culture between groups. These differences have not
been acknowledged and accommodated, with different groups being defined by their
behaviour, rather than culture and ethnicity. Within Europe, others who shared similar
behaviour (itinerants, economic migrants, show people) were lumped together with
Roma and all labelled ‘Gypsies’.
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Within the UK, Romanies, Gypsies, Irish/Scottish Travellers, Showmen and other
economic travellers are often all labelled Travellers.
Most Travellers no longer travel.
The current call for Roma ‘reunification’ is misguided as the Roma were never one
people in one place at one time. Their roots are in Asia, but they were not originally
unified in Asia and only existed as a relatively cohesive group in the West.
5.0 TRADITIONS AND TABOOS
Romany Law is at the heart of the cultural and spiritual character of the Roma people, and
these cultural and spiritual aspects have been classified by Sándor (2012) into two main
categories:
1. Hebrew-related* beliefs, laws, rules and practices; very important within Roma
community life.
2. Fire-worship-related practices and some elements connected with belief; mostly
regulating the relationship with the non-Roma environment.
*Other authorities trace Romany rituals to Hindu sources, although their essential practice remains the same.
A wide range of customs and traditions have also been adopted by Gypsies/Roma from each
country through which they have travelled or stayed for any length of time. For example, many
ancient fire-worship practices were adopted during sojourns in the Persian Empire, and
divination practices adopted from the Persian magi. These customs vary from country to
country, but the main traditions which have remained consistent, and which continue to affect
the Gypsy/Roma way of life today, are:
Strict cleanliness rituals and taboos – that differ from those of the settled community
Justice and Religion
Strict rituals regarding marriage, sexual relations, birth and death
Nomadism/travelling/freedom
Self-employment, self-reliance and independence
Strong oral traditions and shared culture
Importance of extended family
The most conservative and exclusivist of European Roma have strict patterns that are strongly
founded on the Romani language and Romany Law. They do not consider as Roma any groups
who do not speak Romanés, or who speak a dialect of it that is unintelligible for them (such as
British Romanies who have largely lost the pure Romanés language). Differences between
groups are also established according to the degree of observance of the Romany Law, and
many groups have either lost their strict adherence to ancient traditions, or adhere to
traditions without knowing why they do so. This ancient psychological heritage is transferred
unconsciously from generation to generation, and the most important element of it is the
marimé or mochadi cleanliness laws (see below).
13
In Britain, each ‘Traveller’ group has distinct customs and traditions which sets them apart
from others, and which can vary from group to group within a specific community. Romany
Gypsies in particular feel very strongly that they should not be grouped together with other
‘types’ of Traveller, including other ‘traditional’ Travellers, which can be very offensive to them
and creates a strong divide. However, due to living in close proximity with other traveller
groups, there has been some cross-over of customs and practices between them. In particular,
Irish Travellers have adopted some Romany Gypsy customs and traditions. There has been
inter-marriage between the groups despite their differences and tensions, and different
groups live and work alongside each other without conflict due to the common features of
nomadism, self-reliance, and a strong sense of family and community. There are also forums
where different Traveller groups work together to achieve common aims. However, it is very
important to acknowledge and respect the differences between the various groups of
Travellers in the UK today, who have invariably been herded together by a non-Gypsy local
authority onto a designated site.
The lists of customs and taboos below are not therefore comprehensive, as there are many
variations across groups and countries, but these are the ones that appear to remain
consistent, either in practice or in the group’s folk memory and which cause great
misunderstanding in Britain.
5.1 Cleanliness rituals and taboos
In matters of cleanliness Gypsies/Roma take into account spiritual purity as well as physical
hygiene. Complex pollution taboos demonstrate a fundamental distinction between the inside
of the body and the outside. The outer body symbolises the public self and acts as a protective
covering for the inside which must be kept pure and inviolate. The inner body symbolises the
secret ethnic self, a sustained individuality, and is reaffirmed by the solidarity of the Gypsy
group. Gypsies/Roma distinguish between something being dirty and something ritually
unclean. The word chikli means ‘dirty’ in a harmless way. But the word mochadi (or marimé)
means ‘ritually polluted’. A person’s face and clothes can be black with grime but not mochadi,
so long as the inner body is clean. The Gadjé are condemned as mochadi by definition since
they are not Gypsy and do not distinguish between the inner and outer body. The outer body
(or skin) with its discarded scales, accumulated dirt, by-products of hair and waste such as
faeces are all potentially polluting if recycled through the inner body. By contrast, anything
taken into the inner body via the mouth (and eating implements) must be ritually clean … the
outer body must be kept separate from the inner. (Okely, 1983)
There also is a spiritual rationale. Gypsies/Roma believe in the importance of spiritual energy,
called dji, which is drained when too much time is spent in the jado, the non-Romani world.
The only remedy is to reimmerse oneself in an all-Romani milieu, which is another reason that
the Roma tend to keep to themselves. The Gypsy/Roma beliefs create and express symbolic
boundaries between themselves and the majority society, leading to endless conflicts,
confrontations and cultural misunderstandings.
The concept of marimé is the inverse of the Jewish concept of kosher – what is marimé for a
Rom is not kosher for a Jew – and extensive measures are taken to avoid becoming spiritually
defiled or polluted. If contamination is unavoidable, clear rules are followed to become
14
purified. The rules that regulate marimé/mochadi are a fundamental value in Romany society
that conditions their relationship with the external world. Gypsies/Roma classify everything
into two categories: vuzho (pure) or marimé (impure – although the term used more
commonly in Britain is mochadi, so this will be used here). This classification covers the human
body, the spiritual realm, the house or camp, animals, things and Gadjé (non-Roma). Some
examples are:
As Gadjé do not know the laws regarding mochadi, it is assumed that they are impure
and are avoided. Many Roma will not enter a Gadjé house or eat with them.
A Gadjé person visiting a Gypsy caravan may not be allowed entry due to the expense
involved in destroying and replacing the caravan. Separate crockery and utensils are
used for Gypsy and any non-Gypsy visitors (tea often taken outside the caravan). Irish
Travellers, whilst adopting many customs of Romany Gypsies, are more likely to admit
visitors to their caravans.
Gadjé institutions are used as a ‘free trade area’ where impure activities may be
performed with safety (such as a hospital).
The lower part of the body and genitals are considered impure.
Bodily discharge is impure.
The upper body is pure.
Whatever is touched by the lower body is impure (beds, shoes, chairs, floor); anything
touched by the upper body is pure (tables). Any plates or cups placed on the floor, or
accidentally dropped, are destroyed.
The act of sleeping is considered impure, and Gyspies/Roma do not greet anybody
until having washed after waking.
Cats, rats, mice, dogs and foxes are impure because they lick themselves; impure
animals cannot be eaten.
Horses are ritually pure.
The hands have to perform pure and impure acts, therefore must be washed in a
particular way – with separate soap and dried with a separate towel.
Different soaps and towels are always used for the upper and lower body.
Showering in running water is pure, sitting in a bath is impure.
Most Gypsy/Roma men still retain facial whiskers, a tradition that supposedly
originated in a commandment from God.
Washing activity of the person, clothes or dishes must take place outside the caravan,
with different non-interchangeable bowls used for different types of washing. This adds
up to a large stock of bowls per family, all used for different purposes.
Dishes and cooking utensils must be washed in a bowl kept specifically for that
purpose. Only the washing-up bowl is allowed inside the caravan, all other bowls are
placed outside the trailer but not on the floor.
Animal receptacles must be washed in an entirely separate bowl.
Impure clothes (lower body clothes) must be washed in separate bowls from pure
clothes (upper body and children’s clothes); pure clothes must be separated from
tablecloths, napkins, etc. which have a further separate bowl.
All women’s clothing is impure during menstruation.
The camp (or house if necessary) is spiritually pure, and physiological activity must take
place outside it. This means that toilet facilities are placed outside the camp, and
Gypsies will not use the built-in toilet or shower in their caravans (this compartment is
15
usually used for storage). Public health inspectors then prosecute Gypsies for not
having toilets in their caravans.
Houses, wherever possible, should have an outside toilet. Local authorities build
separate washing blocks on their designated caravan sites for Gypsies and Travellers,
but often Gypsies will not use them if the washing facilities are combined with cooking
facilities.
Gypsies board up the sinks provided in caravans, or commission trailers without them –
ordering a continuous Formica ledge instead on which to place crockery bowls.
Garbage must be thrown at an acceptable distance from the camp (giving rise to
spotlessly clean interiors of caravans, and scrap and garbage gathering outside the
caravan). No waste bins are kept inside a caravan.
If cooking on an outdoor fire, it must be a separate fire from one used for burning or
cleaning metal.
Doctors are impure because they deal with illness and death.
Vaccination is impure because it introduces pollution to the inner body. Many Gypsy
families refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated.
5.2 Justice and Religion
JUSTICE
There are no social classes. The only sharp division exists between Roma and Gadjé.
Most Romany law is passed on verbally.
The Romany Court is the Assembly or Kris, composed of family/clan judges. In the UK
this takes the form of the Romany Council.
Disputes among Roma cannot be judged by Gadjé, only by the Kris.
All Roma are equal before the Kris, which must be impartial.
If a serious offence is committed by a Roma person or family, the Kris can judge that
the person/family be banished from the territory of other Roma.
Roma cannot maintain any kind of relationship with the banished person.
Roma cannot ask interest on loans from their own people, but they can so do from
Gadjé.
The custom of asking for items from Gadjé (begging) is believed to be an ancient
commandment from God
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
Roma usually confess an ‘official’ religion, based on the religion of their adopted
country. Beyond this, their essential beliefs include:
Strict monotheism.
An accessible God with no intermediary.
No traditional image, symbol or portrayal of any Divinity.
The existence of a spiritual world, consisting of pure and impure spirits representing
good and evil.
Blasphemy is considered a great sin, as is cursing an elder (but cursing Gadjé is an
acceptable way of ensuring distance with the ‘impure’).
Current phenomenon of conversion to Evangelical movements, leading to
abandonment of ancestral fire-worship elements and divination practices.
16
Complementary superstitious elements:
Having a lighted fire in the house permanently, day and night, winter and summer (a
tradition that is still kept by the most conservative families, while in general is evolving
into a ‘symbolic’ fire like the TV set, always switched on though nobody is actually
watching).
Contrary to popular belief, Roma do not believe in divination themselves, but use
practices such as fortune-telling, palmistry and Tarot outwardly to earn money from
Gadjé.
5.3 Marriage, sexual relations, birth and death
MARRIAGE
Virginity before marriage is essential.
Tokens of virginity are shown to assembled relatives after the wedding.
Incest is forbidden with close relatives, but marrying cousins is acceptable.
Marriage is an obligation for men and women who are expected to marry in their late
teens.
Dating before marriage is strictly forbidden. Matches are made by family elders,
sometimes to forge ties with another family.
The custom of ‘grabbing’ (as seen on Big Fat Gypsy Weddings) relates to a custom of
abduction or capture of brides followed by Irish Travellers. This is based on the Celtic
practice of ‘dragging home the bride’ in Ireland. (Jarman, 1991)
The groom’s family pays a dowry to the bride’s family.
After marriage, the bride usually becomes a part of the groom’s family and lives with
his parents.
The bride is expected to work for the groom’s family.
Runaway couples are considered legitimately married.
In Wales, a traditional Gypsy marriage was ‘over the broom’: … a branch of broom,
preferably in flower, or failing that a besom made of broom, was jumped over by the
bride and bridegroom (Jarman, 1991). Possibly borrowed from the rural Welsh
communities, references to these Gypsy marriages preserve the last examples of their
survival in Wales.
Marriage among Gypsies/Roma is usually within the same group of families – not a
rigid rule but observed by the majority of Gyspies/Roma.
Marrying a non-Roma is usually taboo.
Divorce is acceptable, but a re-married woman cannot return to her first husband.
Members of the Kris must be married.
SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
Female sexuality is seen as polluting if mismanaged; therefore virginity before marriage
is essential, and prostitution strongly condemned.
The Gadjé view of Gypsy women as sensual and provocative contrasts starkly with the
Gypsy view of Gypsy women, who are scrutinised and their sexual behaviour controlled
(a Romany woman cannot be alone with a man who is not her husband). Gadjé women
are thought by Gypsies to demonstrate uncontrolled sexuality, with revealing clothes
and provocative make-up; many are seen as prostitutes.
Nakedness is taboo except between husband and wife.
17
To show one’s legs before an elder is a lack of respect.
Images of erotic scenes are forbidden with a Romany home.
Gypsies/Roma are not allowed to wear clothes of the opposite gender, even in jest.
Homosexuality is considered shameful and an abomination, and is quite rare; it usually
entails exclusion of the individual from the community.
A Cardiff Romany woman has recently been convicted of homophobic abuse,
demonstrating the difference between her beliefs and beliefs of the wider society:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186095/Jayne-Collins-Woman-claiming-Romany-gypsy-princessfacing-jail-homophobic-abuse-Cardiff.html
BIRTH
Menstruation is considered impure and a woman may not cook, wash up or handle
food during this time. She must not step over a fire, a man sitting down, or anything
else that may become defiled. She must pass behind rather than in front of a man. She
must not step over or cross a stream with running water.
Any Romani Gypsy woman in the higher floors in a house ‘pollutes’ the rest of the
people in the house below her (Weyrauch, 2001). Walking over water-pipes buried in
the ground would make the tap water mochadi (Jarman, 1991).
Childbirth is an impure event and should take place outside the camp. This makes it
acceptable for childbirth to take place in a Gadjé hospital, which is already impure.
The mother and child are isolated for seven days, followed by 33 days of semiisolation.
During the 40 days of a woman’s child-bearing and recovery (purification), she cannot
touch any pure items or perform an activity such as cooking. She is allocated separate
crockery which is destroyed at the end of the 40 days. Clothes and beds used during
the 40 days are also destroyed.
Gypsies/Roma consider the firstborn son to be a special blessing for the family.
Gypsy/Roma families often have many children, in keeping with the Romani aphorism
but chave but baxt (many children much luck). Children are often viewed as an
economic resource, helping to earn income and keep employment within the family.
DEATH
Death is a definitive passage to the spiritual world, there are no ideas of reincarnation.
The dead person is impure during their journey to the realm of the souls, and all items
connected with the person are impure. The body cannot be touched.
Relatives of the dead are impure for seven days and cannot bathe, comb hair or cut
their nails during that time. On the third day they must wash and perform ritual
cleansing.
All food in the dead person’s house is considered defiled and is thrown away.
All property belonging to the dead person is destroyed, preferably burned (ritually
cleansing). This extended to valuable wooden caravans, even if it left the remaining
family homeless.
Mourners stay at home, sit on low stools, cover the mirrors, do not use perfumes or
cosmetics, do not wear new clothes, do not listen to music, nor take photographs, nor
watch TV, do not paint, cannot cook and cannot greet people.
The dead must be buried intact, which means organ removal and autopsy are not
allowed. Burning the dead is a great sacrilege.
Gypsy/Roma destiny after death is Paradise.
18
5.4 Nomadism/travelling/freedom
Since leaving India so many centuries ago, Gypsies/Roma have travelled through numerous
countries without any sense of a `homeland'. They have moved because of migration due to
wars, expulsion due to legislation against them, forced migration due to racist attacks, eviction
and deportation, but always for survival – and primarily in order to earn a living. Gypsies/Roma
have never been nomads in the sense of herding or agriculture. Commerce is one of the most
important factors in the decision to move and travel, and for Gypsy/Roma tradesmen or
craftsmen finding customers has always been the main motive for travel. However, with
members of the extended family so dispersed, travel is also necessary to maintain social ties,
and after so many centuries of travelling as a way of life, the ethos of freedom and travel is
part of the Gypsy's heritage.
However, Gypsies remain `nomadic' even when not travelling, and one of the most important
concepts to understand when considering Gypsy principles of freedom is that `nomadism is
more a state of mind than a state of fact' (Liegeois, 1994). Even when they `settle’ Gypsies are
still `travellers' and retain a nomadic frame of mind. The essence of travel as a folk memory is
as much a psychological need as an economic one, and the two have combined to produce a
fundamental component of Gypsy life and `culture' in the UK. A ‘settled’ Gypsy will often have
a caravan parked outside the house and ‘always petrol in the motor'[G]. Gypsies who have been
forcibly `settled' on sites would continue an economic nomadism if they were not prevented
from doing so by outside forces, or the terms of their site licence. The most common response
to the concept of freedom, however, is: `freedom means the freedom to stop without being
harassed'[G].
The ability of Gypsies and Travellers to maintain a mobile lifestyle, key to their definition in law,
has become increasingly difficult. UK planning legislation has reduced the number of places
where Gypsies and Travellers can legally stop. Work patterns have also changed in recent years
and many Gypsies and Travellers undertake work which does not require them to adopt a
nomadic lifestyle. Access to services and education have also affected Gypsy and Traveller
patterns of travelling.
The pattern of travelling within GRT groupings varies between:
a) Maintaining an entirely nomadic lifestyle.
b) Residing in settled housing for part of the year.
c) Residing in authorised local authority campsites.
d) Residing in private campsites.
e) Residing in unauthorised campsites.
f) Maintaining an entirely settled lifestyle but retaining the identity of ‘Traveller’.
While there are exceptions, the general picture built up of residential Gypsy/Traveller sites is
that they are stable, with long-term residents who travel little during the course of a year. It
may be that, for many residents, the attractions of a site lie in the possibilities of living within a
culturally distinct community among friends and family. However, to remain a ‘Gypsy’ in terms
of planning law, part of a Gypsy’s living must be earned in a nomadic way. Gypsies living on
authorised sites therefore began relying more on the horse fairs for their cultural and legal
nomadism, and for retaining extended family ties. However, as Liegeois (1994) has noted: `As
19
far as Gypsies and Travellers themselves are concerned, there is generally no sense of
"progress" attached to passing from a caravan to a house: such change is a temporary result of
compromise, and may indeed, if too strongly imposed from without, be seen as a step
downwards.'
Recently a Gypsy won the right to live in a caravan after saying he couldn’t get a good night’s
sleep in his three-bedroom home: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187354/Gypsy-wins-right-livecaravan-saying-good-nights-sleep-home.html
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the
Regions Thirteenth Report http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmodpm/633/63306.htm
5.5 Self-employment
A Gypsy/Roma family unit typically encompasses multiple generations, and includes a
patriarch and matriarch, their unmarried offspring (both young and adult), and a married son,
his wife, and their children. By the time an older son is ready to establish his own household, a
younger son often will have married and brought his wife and children into the family to take
the place of the departing sibling. Economic activities take place within the framework of the
family group, which is the basic economic unit, and children learn the various trades of the
family alongside their parents on a day-to-day basis. This method also provides training in
diversity, change, variety and flexibility. As a people on the move, their oral tradition imparts
economic training as well as entertainment and the core ideas of their culture.
Gypsies/Roma have never been self-sufficient in the same way as pastoral nomads, but have
always been dependent upon the larger economy. They have always been peripatetic
economic nomads through the sale of goods or services. Pastoralism labour, livestock and
pasture. Peripatetics labour, customers and goods or skills.
Having been displaced from India, the main occupations which the Gypsies/Roma had
followed were continued on a nomadic basis when they began to move from country to
country for survival. The four main occupations were metalwork, entertainment, craftwork and
general trading. Many variations of these basic trades were developed, and many other skills
added as the need arose, but even today many Gypsies still follow a modern version of these
original occupations. More important is that the strategies for economic survival which were
originally employed are still in use, although adapted and varied to suit modern conditions in
different countries and regions. As itinerant communities their sources of subsistence have
always been in relation to sedentary customers through the provision of specialised goods or
services, and through the exploitation of seasonal or periodic opportunities. Below is a
breakdown of traditional and current trades and occupations.
In order to maximise their economic opportunities and chances of survival, certain
fundamental factors are of paramount importance to Gypsies/Roma/Travellers:
a) adaptability to social, geographical, occupational and economic situations;
b) self-employment and independence from wage-labour; and
c) nomadism – the ability to travel to find customers.
20
It is these factors which contribute in large measure to the essence of being a Romany Gypsy
(whether `settled’ or not) and their `economic independence has been a near-universal
correlate of the maintenance of ethnic identity’ (Acton 1974). However, it is just these same
factors which have been the cause of centuries of prejudice and discrimination – problems
which are still apparent today and which are central to European Union policies on
Roma/Gypsies.
GYPSY/TRAVELLER TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
Metalwork Entertainment
(Main)
Entertainment
(Secondary)
Craft work Labour Trade/Service
Traditional Trades and Occupations
Weapon makers Singers Circus artistes Woodcarvers Forced soldiers General traders
Tinsmiths Dancers Jugglers Basket makers Mercenary
soldiers
Hawking small
goods
Blacksmiths Musicians Horse traders Leather workers Guards Rag collection
Coppersmiths Jugglers Vets Shoe makers Agricultural
workers
Gold panners Animal handlers Bear trainers Peg makers War labour
(snipers, scouts,
vets, soldiers)
Munitions
workers
Soothsayers Snake charmers Camp providers
Knife grinders Healers
Scrap dealers Astrologers
Fortune tellers
Most Common Current Trades and Occupations
Scrap dealing Singers Horse trading Wagon building Farm work Roofing/Building
Car breaking Dancers Boxing Wagon
restoring
Fruit/veg
picking
Tarmac laying
Secondhand car
dealing
Musicians Factory work Barn spraying
Cabaret artists Tree
lopping/logs
Fortune tellers Carpet selling
Antique/general
dealing
Lawyers
Teachers
Politicians
Journalists
Gypsies/Travellers in the UK do not train generally for a single occupation. They are involved in
a number of activities, any one of which may come to the fore at any given time, to meet the
needs of the moment. Traditionally, a family may have been involved in scrap collection in the
winter, fruit or potato picking in the spring and summer, general building work as it became
available, and the buying and selling of horses or general goods at Gypsy horse fairs during
the fair season. Activities are dropped or taken up as circumstances or the seasons dictate.
Gypsy/Traveller children typically receive just a basic education to the end of primary school,
and are then often withdrawn from school in order to take part in the family’s economic
activities.
21
Due to site provision and enforced settlement, full economic nomadism is being replaced by
mobility from a semi-fixed base. Improved transport makes it possible to work a relatively
large area from a fixed base, without having to move the whole family so often, and
Gypsies/Travellers have adopted the use of the mobile telephone very extensively. However,
these are strategies to adapt yet again to imposed restrictions, as forced sedentarism militates
against moving freely to provide labour, goods and services. Site provision in its present form
equates with control, not freedom of movement. The truly geographically mobile trader can
gain significant advantages in price differences and availability of goods in different areas, as
well as capitalise on untapped markets for his goods and services. This economic freedom is
denied those Gypsies/Travellers forced to live on sites, who in many cases must resort to social
security as their only means of survival. Whether ‘settled’ or mobile, Gypsies and Travellers
prefer to retain their self-employed status at all times.
GYPSY/TRAVELLER REASONS FOR SELF-EMPLOYMENT
Wage-labour employment Gypsy/Traveller occupations
1. Employee. 1. Self-employed.
2. Dependence on a single trade or industry. 2. Diversified occupations.
3. Capital-intensive technology. 3. Labour-intensive.
4. ‘Unskilled’ labour or specific skills. 4. Less specific, more wide-ranging aptitudes or skills.
5. Work away from the family and home. 5. Family often involved in production. Some work in
home setting.
6. Work/leisure division of hours, days and weeks. Set
holidays.
6. No work/leisure division. Time off a personal choice.
No set holidays.
7. Orders from above. Usually fixed routine. 7. Self-imposed orders and decisions. Routine is selfstructured.
8. Training and education in institutions external to the
family, e.g. school and college.
8. Family-based training and education.
9. Wage payment. 9. Individually negotiable prices and profits.
10. Short-term security of a regular fixed wage. 10. Short-term insecurity with unpredictable losses, but
the promise of a windfall.
11. Possibility of long-term insecurity; the sack or
redundancy.
11. Some long-term security; independence from an
employer and flexibility in occupation.
12. Sick benefit and unemployment money. Diminished
support from kin and neighbours.
12. No sick benefit, no unemployment money. No
Social Security benefits if no fixed address. Assistance
from kin and neighbours.
13. Compulsory retirement in most cases. Pension or
Social Security.
13. Some self-employment in old age. No pension.
Social Security benefit available.
14. Fixed location. 14. Geographical mobility.
15. Work may be available but no housing. 15. Work may be available but no legal stopping-place.
Source: Judith Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies (1983)
The fact remains that Gypsies/Travellers continue to follow particular trades and to supply
goods and services to the host community because a demand exists, and because they have
the skills to satisfy those demands. They also have the flexibility to adapt their skills as
circumstances or their customers' demands change. But in order to do this, they must travel to
where their customers are, and stop long enough in one place to supply the services required.
This invariably means stopping on the outskirts of a town – close enough to service their
clients, but separate enough to be considered vagrants, parasites, outcasts, marginalised or
deviants in need of assimilation or integrationist policies.
22
The tightening up of regulations on small-scale trading is a general problem in Europe,
with many EU regulations and imposition of new laws now making it impossible for
Gypsies/Travellers to practise traditional independent trades. Even when operating from a
fixed base on a regular trade circuit, the complex red tape and requirement for licences causes
huge problems for an under-educated group. Within the UK the introduction of written
examinations as a compulsory part of the British driving test automatically discriminated
against an uneducated Gypsy/Traveller minority. As driving is an integral part of the
Gypsy/Traveller way of life, the inability to gain a licence decreases substantially the scope for
earning a living.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Sources: Judith Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies (1983); Travellers Aid Trust http://travellersaidtrust.org;
Sándor[G],‘Comparison of Romany Law with Israelite Law and Indo-Aryan Traditions’
http://www.imninalu.net/Roma.htm;
National Geographic online at: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/american-gypsies/romani-cultureand-traditions/
6.0 LEGAL STATUS
In the UK Gypsies/Roma/Travellers are subject to the same laws as the settled community.
However, there are certain laws that affect the travelling community disproportionately. The
area where there is most conflict relates to their nomadic existence and unauthorised
encampment. Due to this nomadic lifestyle Gypsies/Travellers are frequently subject to
offences regarding criminal damage, refuse disposal, road traffic and trespass. Since the
introduction of the European Convention on Human Rights, however, a toleration policy has
been developed by the Department of the Environment regarding unauthorised
encampments. Given the lack of official campsites in the UK a non-harassment policy has
become necessary, although implementation of this policy has been fragmented nationally,
with some areas adopting this policy and others resorting to legislative measures. Use of these
powers can prove problematical with the potential for breaches of the European Convention
on Human Rights and Race Relations acts. There is now a general duty on the police and
government authorities to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; to promote equality of
opportunity, and to promote good race relations between people of different racial groups.
The few cases regarding Gypsy/Traveller issues that have been decided in the European Courts
commented that there had been interference with Gypsy/Traveller rights. The main Convention
rights affecting Gypsies/Roma/Travellers are the right to private and family life, and the right
of prohibition of discrimination.
At present the definitions currently employed in UK law (used variously, depending on the
case in hand), are:
(a) The definition of a Gypsy in the Caravan Sites Act 1968 is: Persons of nomadic habit of life,
whatever their race or origin, but does not include members of an organised group of travelling
showpeople or persons engaged in travelling circuses travelling together as such.
(b) However, in May 1994, Lord Justice Neil found the 1968 Act definition unsatisfactory, and
defined Gypsies as: Persons who wander or travel for the purpose of making or seeking their
livelihood (not persons who move from place to place without any connection between their
23
movements and their means of livelihood). It is this definition which is currently used by
Government. It focuses on habitual lifestyle rather than ethnicity and includes ‘born’ Gypsies
and Travellers and ‘elective’ Travellers such as New Age Travellers.
(c) For the purposes of the Race Relations Act 1976 the essential conditions for persons to
constitute a ‘racial group’ are: (i) a long shared history, of which the group is conscious as
distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive; (ii) a cultural
tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not
necessarily associated with religious observance.
These various definitions all serve to confuse the issue of who is and who isn’t a Gypsy in the
eyes of the law, governments, the Gypsies themselves, and the non-Gypsy population. A 1994
appeal case ruled that the term `nomad' entailed `not just travel, but regular travel for an
economic purpose.' As Kenrick & Bakewell (1995) point out, this means that Romany Gypsies
living on a caravan site who travel only to visit fairs to see friends and relatives lose their status
as ‘Gypsies’ under the 1968 Act. On the other hand New Age Travellers who travel either to work
or to seek work may acquire the status of ‘Gypsies’.
The broad term `Traveller' is now used to cover all types of travelling groups, whether Gypsy or
not, with the result that all Gypsies are Travellers (whether settled or mobile), but not all
Travellers are ethnically Gypsies. Many Gypsies and Travellers now live increasingly sedentary
lifestyles. The current definitions imply that those within the community who do not adopt a
nomadic lifestyle are not actually Gypsies and Travellers.
In Wales the Welsh Assembly Government has a general duty to ensure equality of
opportunity for all people without reference to membership of specific groups. The Equality of
Opportunity Committee argued that Gypsies and Travellers should have the right to selfidentify.
Timeline for British Gypsies/Travellers and Legislation
From their first appearance in Britain, Gypsies came in small family groups seeking
opportunities to carry on existing trades and occupations amongst settled populations. There
was little space for them and no chance to establish … the only place for the Gypsies was,
therefore, on the fringes of society where they had to make a living as best as they could.
(Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995)
1100s Ireland
Travellers first recorded in Ireland. Travelling tinsmiths mentioned in Scottish records.
By the twelfth century the name Tynkler and Tynker (derived from ‘tinceard’, meaning
‘tinsmith’) emerged in reference to a group of nomads who maintained a separate
identity, social organisation, and dialect.
1200s Britain
Many fairs are created by Royal Charter.
24
1505 Scotland
First authenticated record of Gypsies in Scotland. This means they probably
arrived some time during the fifteenth century. King James IV of Scotland pays seven
pounds to ‘Egyptians’ stopped at Stirling, who may have come from Spain. Parish
records from around this time show that Irish Travellers are already living in England.
1510 England
Two ladies dressed up as Gypsies for a masked court ball, indicating Gypsies were in
England for some years prior to this date.
1514 England
First mention of a Gypsy in England recorded at Lambeth.
1530 England and Wales
Gypsies are forbidden to enter England under Henry VIII. Those already there are
deported.
1540 Scotland
Gypsies allowed to live under their own laws.
1544 England
Gypsies deported to Norway.
1547 Andrew Boorde, an English physician and writer, published The Fyrst Boke of the
Introduction of Knowledge in which the Romani language is recorded as ‘Egipt speche’
for the first time.
1554 England – Egyptians Act
Queen Mary passes the Egyptians Act. Being a Gypsy is punishable by death, as is
being found in ‘the fellowship or company of Egyptians’. This is the only time that
fraternising with an ethnic community has been punishable by death. The death
penalty is imposed for any Gypsy not leaving the country within a month.
1562 England
Provision of previous Acts widened to include people who live and travel like Gypsies.
Travelling is either on foot or with two-wheeled tilted carts with a canvas cover. Many
Gypsies live in makeshift bender tents, and will continue to do so until the mid-late
twentieth century.
1572 England
First recorded Gypsy presence in Leeds Parish registers.
1573 Scotland
Gypsies ordered either to stop travelling and settle down or leave the country.
1579 Wales
First records of Kalé Gypsies in Radnor.
25
1596 York, England
Mass execution of Gypsies in the city.
1596 England
Shakespeare refers to Romanies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – ‘Sees Helen’s beauty
in the brow of Egypt’.
1600 England
Shakespeare refers to fortune telling in As You Like It.
1603 England
In Othello, Desdemona’s handkerchief is a gift from a gypsy ‘Egyptian charmer’.
1611 Scotland
Three Gypsies hanged (under 1554 law).
1650s England
Last known hanging for the crime of being a Gypsy, in Suffolk, England. Gypsies are
deported to America.
1685 England
Appleby Fair granted chartered fair status in 1685 by James II.
1714 Scotland
Two female Gypsies executed. British Gypsies are shipped to the Caribbean as slaves.
1715 Scotland
Ten Gypsies deported to Virginia.
1768 England
The first modern circus is held in London.
1780 England
Anti-Gyspy legislation gradually repealed from this date.
1800s Britain
Fairs start to include mechanical rides, as they still do today.
1820s Britain
Tents start to be used for fairs under George IV.
1820 Britain
Specially-commissioned wooden caravans start being used for travel by showmen
(Showmen’s wagons).
1822 United Kingdom
Turnpike Act introduced: Gypsies camping on the roadside to be fined.
26
1835 United Kingdom – Highways Act 1835
This Act strengthened the provisions of the 1822 Turnpike Act. It became an offence
to `be a Gypsy encamping on the highway' which meant that under this legislation
Gypsies on a verge or in a layby were committing an offence while a foreign or British
tourist could park a caravan alongside without being summonsed. This Act was still
being used until its repeal in 1980.
1840s Large groups of Irish Travellers arrive in mainland Britain due to 1840s famine in
Ireland.
1840 England
Specially-commissioned wooden caravans start being used for travel by Romany
Gypsies (Gypsy vardos).
1880s England
Agricultural depression in England. Many Travellers and Gypsies are poverty-stricken
and move to urban squatters’ areas. Hundreds of Irish Travellers leave Ireland for
Britain.
1889 Britain
Showmen in Britain form the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Association, later called the
Showmen’s Guild, to fight the Moveable Dwellings Bill, which restricts travellers’
movements.
1908 England – The Children’s Act
Education is made compulsory for Travelling children in England by The Children’s Act,
but only for half the year.
1930s Local Acts of Parliament
Many local authorities were given additional powers against Gypsies under these local
acts.
1930s-60s
Groups of European Roma come to live in Britain.
1936 England – Public Order Act 1936
An Act originally designed to cover anti-semitic propaganda. ‘True’ Romany Gypsies
may be considered an ethnic group for the purposes of section 5A of this Act.
1939 World War II
In Britain, the government builds caravan camps for Gypsies serving in the forces or
doing vital farm work. These are closed when the war finishes. In Germany, Roma, Sinti
and other Gypsies are stripped of all human rights by the Nazis. As many as 600,000
are murdered in camps and gas chambers. Known by Roma as the porrajmos (the
‘devouring’), the Roma holocaust in Europe.
27
1942 Germany
Central Security Office in Berlin started to collect information on the Gypsy
population of England, in preparation for a planned invasion of Britain.
1945 Britain
Travellers start to use motor-drawn trailers, and some buy their own land to stop on.
1947 England
Committee set up by Norman Dodds, Labour MP, which included Gypsy and Gorgio
members which drew up a nine-point Charter regarding Gypsy and Traveller needs in
England and Wales.
1954 United Kingdom – Convention on Stateless Persons (1954)
The UK signed the Convention which states The contracting states shall as far as
possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalisation of stateless persons. In practice
the Home Office ignored this convention.
1960 England and Wales – The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960
The 1960 Caravan Sites Act made it illegal for any piece of land to be used as a
caravan site without a licence – and a licence was unobtainable without planning
permission. A Gypsy could not buy a piece of land and park his own caravan on it
without first obtaining planning permission and then a site licence. Many Gypsies were
also driven off private land by benevolent landowners now unable to obtain a site
licence, and farmers using seasonal workers were fined under the same Act.
Under section 24 of this Act, local authorities were given discretionary powers to
provide caravan sites, but there was no mandatory duty. The aim was to regularise
static caravan sites and raise standards for site residents through requirements for
planning permission and site licences. Caravans were prohibited from common land.
This led to a reduction in the number of places where Gypsies could stop. Some
central funds were available to fund provision of sites, but by 1967 only 14 had been
built.
1960s Mass evictions and public harassment of Gypsies and Travellers. Irish Government
‘Commission on Itinerancy’ begins a programme to assimilate Irish Travellers. Huge
influx of Irish Travellers to mainland Britain.
1960 Commons Act
Camping on commons prohibited.
1965 National Survey of Gypsies took place which recorded 15,500 ‘Gypsies and other
Travellers’ (approximately 75% of the real number).
1966 Britain
Gypsy Council (Romany Kris) founded.
28
1968 England and Wales – Caravan Sites Act 1968
This Act placed a duty on county councils and districts to provide accommodation for
Gypsies ‘residing in and resorting to’ their areas. The Act required counties to assess
the level of provision required, and to acquire the land. In Shire counties districts were
responsible for the management of sites. If the Secretary of State deemed adequate
provision to have been made, counties (and later individual districts) could apply to be
'designated'. This gave them increased powers to deal with illegal encampments. There
was no time-scale given for local authorities to make provision, and some authorities
failed to meet their obligations. The Secretary of State could direct a county to make
adequate provision of sites but these powers were rarely used.
The 1968 Caravan Sites Act promised to provide a solution to the problem of not being
allowed to stop, by providing official caravan sites for Gypsies, but this turned out to be
an empty promise. The main provisions of the Act were that:
a) County Councils had a duty to provide accommodation for Gypsies ‘residing in and
resorting to’ their areas;
b) a London Borough need not provide accommodation for more than 15 caravans;
c) the Secretary of State for the Environment may direct any local authority requiring
them to provide sites;
d) an Area can be designated as an area in which Gypsies cannot station their caravans
except if there are pitches free on the official site – it is a criminal offence to do so.
Problems arose almost immediately, because many Councils did not fulfil their
obligations (and still haven't) to build the requisite number of sites, and those
Councils that did, quickly provided the minimum number of pitches, based on
inadequate counts of families in the area, and then claimed `designated' status.
Under the 1968 Act, `designated' areas of the country are those where Gypsies
cannot station a caravan on vacant land without committing a crime, making many
areas of the country legally a Gypsy-free zone.
Those families who managed to secure a place on a site became legal, but hampered in
their ability to travel and find work and those who didn't secure a pitch became
automatically criminalised as there was nowhere for them to legally stop elsewhere.
Not being able to stop without harassment and forced roadside evictions meant that
economic adaptability became severely difficult, whilst many site regulations prohibit
the carrying on of a trade or business on the site.
1968 England
The NGEC (National Gypsy Education Council) was set up with a committee of Gypsy
activists and educationalists. Lady Plowden became its first Chair.
1970 Britain
People from the settled community start to take to the road and live in caravans. They
are designated as ‘New Age Travellers’ in the media.
1970 Part 2 of the Caravan Sites Act comes into operation.
Councils must provide sites for Gypsies. Largely ignored.
29
1971 England
First World Romani Congress held near London.
Scotland
Advisory Committee on the Travelling People starts work.
1972 England
Romani Guild founded.
1976 The Race Relations Act 1976
States that Gypsies and Travellers must not be discriminated against and they must
be treated fairly. It creates a general duty on a wide range of public authorities,
including the police service, to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; promote
equality of opportunity, and promote good race relations between people of
different racial groups. The Act requires local authorities to assess the impact of any
proposed policies on all ethnic minorities; Romany Gypsies were recognised as an
ethnic minority in 1989, and Irish Travellers in 2000.
1977 England and Wales
John Cripps appointed to study the workings of the 1968 Caravans Act, and to report
on the way in which local authorities had ignored its provisions.
1979 England
To ensure adequate numbers of sites and monitor progress in meeting the provisions
of the 1968 Act, a bi-annual count of Gypsy caravans and families was introduced in
England in 1979. It is voluntary, although has a high return rate; 94% of authorities
completed the relevant form in January 2003. The Count is based on two returns made
by local authorities to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister:
GS1 is a count of the number Gypsy caravans, families, adults and children on
unauthorised sites, authorised local authority sites and authorised private sites
in each local authority area on specified dates in January and July. Numbers on
unauthorised sites are split according to land-ownership (Gypsy owned land
and other) and 'toleration' status (local authorities may 'tolerate' some
unauthorised encampments in the sense that they will not take enforcement
action).
GS2 assess the provision of local authority Gypsy sites. This return requires
details of the address, total number of pitches, type of pitches (residential and
transit), total caravan capacity, and date of opening for all local authority Gypsy
and Traveller sites at a specified date in January each year.
1980 Local Government Act
Incorporated many suggestions from the Cripps Report.
1980 The offence of ‘being a Gypsy encamping on a highway’ is abolished.
1980 Education Act
Gypsies on illegal sites are entitled to a school place.
30
1983 Mobile Homes Act
This gives people who live on protected site extra protection from eviction. However,
at present, local council sites for Gypsies and Travellers are not protected.
1985 England
Bradford’s attempts to make it illegal for nomadic Gypsies to come within city limits
overthrown by the Courts.
1986 Public Order Act 1986
Statutory protection of Gypsy Travellers from racially motivated crimes in mainland
UK. Trespass on vacant land becomes a criminal offence: reinforces law on racial
harassment. There are further powers contained within the Act which have been
utilised where there has been notification or awareness that large numbers of Gypsies
or Travellers have intended encamping at identified locations. There are also powers
regarding regulation and prohibition of assemblies, which can be enforced prior to or
during the assembly if known when and where it is taking place.
1988 Education Reform Act
New fund for Traveller education.
1989 Britain
Romany Gypsies are first recognised as an ethnic minority.
1990 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TPCA 1990)
and
1991 Planning and Compensation Act 1991
Planning legislation is the main tool used to tackle unauthorised development on
land owned by Gypsies and Travellers. Under the TCPA 1990, local planning
authorities have a number of powers:
a) Where an apparent breach of planning control has taken place, a planning
contravention notice may be served requiring information regarding activities on the
land or interests in the land.
b) An enforcement notice may be served requiring that steps be taken to remedy a
specified breach within a given period of time.
c) Direct action may be taken where steps required by an enforcement notice have not
been taken within the compliance period.
d) A stop notice may be served which immediately stops any activity which
contravenes planning control.
e) A breach of condition notice may be served where a condition or limitation imposed
through a planning permission is not complied with. There is no statutory right of
appeal against a breach of condition notice.
f) High Court or County Court injunctions may be served in order to restrain any actual
or expected breach of planning control.
g) Compulsory purchase can take place following authorisation from the Secretary of
State.
In addition, local authorities have the option to take civil action for trespass in their
capacity as landowners.
31
1993 Scotland
Scottish Gypsy Traveller Association set up.
1994 Britain – Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
This is the greatest blow to a nomadic way of life. Under this Act, the 1968 Caravan
Sites Act is repealed, which means that councils are no longer obliged to build sites,
and can close those already built. At the same time, it is now a criminal offence to
stop on a roadside with six or more vehicles, which means that a maximum of two
families (two caravans and two towing vehicles) can stop together. The powers given
to `designated' areas have been strengthened and now apply across the whole of
England and Wales, against all caravans. Not moving after being asked to do so by a
local council becomes a further criminal offence (Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995). This Act
provides the police and local authorities with powers to tackle unauthorised
encampments where no trespass is involved. Grant aid for the provision of sites was
also withdrawn. Instead Travellers were encouraged to buy their own land. However,
Barkham (2005) noted that over 90% of planning applications are refused as opposed
to 20% of non-traveller applications.
As the Commission for Racial Equality has noted, `Gypsies will have two choices:
either to become house dwellers or to be criminalised for following a nomadic way of
life.' The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act received Royal Assent in the U.K. in the
same week as the Committee of Ministers signed a new Council of Europe framework
convention on the protection of national minorities, linked to the European
Convention on Human Rights (November 1994).
The main legislation contains police powers applicable to unauthorised encampment
in the mainland UK, although use of the police powers is inconsistent throughout the
UK. Additional powers are also provided in Section 62 of the Act, regarding seizure of
vehicles from the land where the unauthorised encampment is located. Powers to
prohibit trespassory assemblies have been used regarding large unauthorised
encampments of Travellers on the grounds primarily of ‘serious disruption to the life of
the community’. Use of the powers contained in the Act and other legislation may
result in liability for civil wrongs arising under the Race Relations Act 1976 as
amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 or the Human Rights Act 1998,
depending on the particular circumstances. There are several alternative procedures
available to deal with unauthorised encampment dependent on individual
circumstances including powers and offences contained within the Highway Acts, local
byelaws and planning legislation.
An accompanying Department of the Environment circular, Gypsy Sites Policy and
Unauthorised Camping recommended that local authorities consider adopting a
policy of toleration and a more humane response towards unauthorised
encampment, identifying wider obligations which Local Authorities may have to the
travelling community.
32
Toleration policy
The Department of the Environment and the Regions publication details
considerations that should be made when considering toleration of unauthorised
encampments. The current guidance suggests in the absence of specific welfare
needs considerations regarding eviction should include the following:
i) The nature, suitability or obtrusiveness of the encampment.
ii) The size of the group, their behaviour and the level of nuisance.
iii) The number, validity and seriousness of complaints.
When a decision is made not to evict, the period the encampment remains should be
determined by the specific circumstances of the particular encampment and could
include the following:
a) The educational needs of the children.
b) The recent birth of children.
c) Where Gypsy Travellers wish to stay for a short period, and they are unlikely to cause
disruption or damage during their stay, a negotiated date of departure may be
appropriate which if exceeded may trigger eviction.
d) Consideration should be made by authorities as to whether Gypsy Travellers
should be referred to a more suitable nearby site.
e) Other considerations include consultation with local planning authorities regarding
the impact of particular unauthorised encampments.
Implementation of toleration policies is at present fragmented nationally.
1996 Housing Act 1996
This Act defined a person as homeless if they have accommodation but:
i. Cannot secure entry to it, or
ii. It consists of a moveable structure, vehicle or vessel designed or adapted for human
habitation and there is no place where he is entitled or permitted both to place it and
to reside in it.
Consequently Gypsies on unauthorised sites are, by law, homeless. A target was set
for local authorities in England to significantly increase accommodation for Gypsies
and Travellers by 2011, though research commissioned by the Equality and Human
Rights Commission (2009) indicates that most local authorities are far from meeting
this target.
1997 England
Roma refugees from the Slovak Republic arrive in Dover in November/December
seeking asylum and receive mainly negative reactions and hostility from local
residents and the national news media.
1998 Human Rights Act
This Act came into effect in October 2000 when provisions of the European
Convention on Human Rights were incorporated into UK law. The Act makes it
unlawful for a public authority to act in breach of Convention Rights unless it could
not have acted differently under primary legislation. Any interference with a
Convention Right must be proportionate to the objective in question and must not
33
be arbitrary, unfair or oppressive. Several Articles of the Act are important in relation
to Gypsies and Travellers:
a) Article 1 states:
i. Every natural person or legal person is entitles to the peaceful enjoyments
of his possessions.
ii. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest
and subject to the conditions provided for by the law and by the general
principles of international law.
b) Article 8 states:
i. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home
and his correspondence.
ii. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this
right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a
democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the
economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime,
for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and
freedom of others.
In relation to Article 8 the European Court of Human Rights has held that, occupation
of [a] caravan is an integral part of [...] ethnic identity as a gypsy, reflecting the long
tradition of that minority of following a travelling lifestyle. This is the case even though
[…] many gypsies increasingly settle for long periods in one place […]."
Other Articles are also relevant:
a) Article 2, the right not be denied access to education (this may be significant if
eviction is considered by a local authority)
b) Article 3, prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment
c) Article 11, freedom of peaceful assembly and association
d) Article 14 refers to the right of prohibition of discrimination: The enjoyment of the
rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination
on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other
status.
Section 6 (1) states: It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is
incompatible with a Convention right.
1998 Crime and Disorder Act
Statutory protection of Gypsy Travellers from racially motivated specified in the
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 in mainland United Kingdom.
2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
Irish Travellers recognised as an Ethnic Minority under Race Relations Act. The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 states that public authorities must help all racial
groups to be treated fairly.
34
2000 England
Start of Gypsy-led protests at the ban of the 600-year-old fair at Horsemonden in Kent
which are successful and the ban is finally lifted in 2006.
2001 Race Relations Act (Statutory Duties) Order 2001
Additional specific duties are placed on public authorities already bound by the
general duty. These specific duties will be imposed on individual public authorities
by the Act in England and Wales, and by the Race Relations Act (Statutory Duties)
(Scotland) Order 2002 in Scotland.
2001 Gypsy Sites Refurbishment Grant
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister introduced this Grant in 2001 to provide
funding for refurbishment of existing local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites in
England. £17 million was made available over three years to local authorities, who
were required to bid for funds. The grant provided 75% of the total costs, with local
authorities funding the remainder. For 2003/04 the grant was extended to allow local
authorities to bid for funds to build temporary sites and emergency stopping places.
A further two years’ funding of £16 million was announced for 2004/5 and 2005/6.
2002 Homelessness Act 2002
By July of 2003, all local authorities were required to develop housing strategies that
reviewed and predicted levels of homelessness within the authority's area. The
strategy is required to ensure there is sufficient accommodation for all homeless
people in the area.
2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003
On 26 July 2002, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Office issued
a joint press release outlining the Government's new approach to tackling
unauthorised camping, introducing stronger police powers to move unauthorised
encampments provided there was adequate site provision. This Act provided the police
with additional powers when a suitable pitch is available on a relevant site. A relevant
site is defined as one within the same local authority area, although in a two-tier
authority, the availability of a pitch would be on a county-wide basis. There is no
definition of 'suitable pitch'. The powers of the Act may be used when:
a) At least two people are trespassing;
b) There is at least one vehicle;
c) It appears that there are one or more caravans or;
d) The trespassers are on the land for the purpose of residing there for any period of
time.
In such circumstances, a police officer may direct trespassers to move off the land.
However, the police and local authority are bound by the Human Rights Act and the
local authority should first undertake a welfare check at the encampment. Efforts
should be made to keep members of the encampment together; where this is not
possible, dependant members of the encampment should not be separated.
35
2003 Wales
In May 2003 the Welsh Assembly Equality of Opportunity Committee published its
"Review of Service provision for Gypsies and Travellers". It recommended that there
should be a duty to provide, or facilitate the provision of accommodation for Gypsies
and Travellers and that this should be supported by additional funding.
2004 Guidance on Managing Unauthorised Camping
In February 2004 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Office
published guidance on managing unauthorised camping. It identifies a number of
principles to be followed in managing unauthorised camping. The principles involved
are:
a) To enforce the same standards of behaviour by unauthorised campers as are
expected of the settled community.
b) To respond rapidly to any deterioration of behaviour and growing disruption from
an encampment.
c) To facilitate access to services for Gypsy and Travellers on encampments.
d) To keep all parties informed of decisions and actions.
2004 Housing Act
A statutory requirement is introduced under section 225 of the Housing Act 2004 that
there should be an accommodation needs assessment of all Gypsies and Travellers,
which is then included in housing plans. The Needs Assessments in some areas were
very poor to start with but have improved over time.
2005 Britain
The Sun newspaper launches its ‘Stamp on the Camps’ campaign against Gypsies and
Travellers. The Conservatives try to get re-elected by targeting Gypsies’ supposed
flouting of planning laws.
2006 Britain
BBC starts Rokker Radio, the first programme for Gypsies and Travellers in its history
(discontinued in 2008).
2006 Circular 01/2006 Planning For Gypsy and Traveller Caravan Sites
Planning guidance issued. There has been an increase in site provision through the
planning system, but the majority of these are only temporary permissions whilst the
new regional planning system, Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS’s) gets under way. In
the meantime, some districts and boroughs are objecting to providing pitches even
though the identified numbers are very small compared to housing provision.
2007 The Showman circular
Issued as many local authorities ignored the fact that Showmen should also have their
needs assessed. The majority of the early assessments did not include Showmen.
Showman families have a tradition of travelling and living in caravans for centuries and
have their own planning circular, Circular 04/2007 Planning for Travelling Show people.
36
2008 Britain
Britain celebrates the first Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. In Italy, Roma
camps are firebombed by neo-nazis. Scottish Gypsy Travellers are recognised as an
ethnic minority for the first time.
2008 A Bill was launched by Chris Johnson (Community Law Partnership) to promote security
of tenure for local authority Gypsy caravan sites. During the Housing and Renovation
Bill, the clause that made local authority sites exempt from the 1983 Mobile Homes Act
was removed.
2010 Equality Act
Places a duty on public authorities to stop prejudice; ensure equality; encourage good
relations between different groups.
2011 Annual Census
For the first time the Annual Census categorised Romanies (including Roma) and Irish
Travellers as distinct ethnic groups.
2011 Coalition Government Policy on Gypsies and Travellers
Under the current Coalition Government there is a move towards decentralising the
planning system for Traveller sites with the aim of giving local councils the
responsibility for determining the appropriate level of site provision (Communities and
Local Government 2011).
The Rowntree Charitable Trust has provided funding to the Travellers Aid Trust (TAT) to
look at the impact of the Decentralisation and Localism Bill on Gypsies and Travellers.
TAT (a Wales-based UK-wide organisation) facilitated a Panel Review to provide a
platform to bring together a wide range of stakeholders, enabling them to share their
wealth of knowledge and experience in this area. The convened Panel was composed
of a range of politicians from the main political parties and a number of established
academics and legal experts. In February 2011 the Panel heard evidence from local
government, other service providers, the police and Gypsies and Travellers themselves.
Discussion centred on the four key themes of:
a) Site Delivery
b) Empowerment and Localism
c) Community Cohesion and Fairness
d) Social Inclusion
The final Report represents a series of recommendations to determine means by which
Government proposals can be strengthened and made more effective in terms of site
delivery and social inclusion. The report also considers the potential impact of NHS
reforms on initiatives to improve the health and reduce inequalities in Gypsy, Roma
and Traveller communities.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
37
Sources:
Kenrick & Bakewell (1995)
Cardiff Council Traveller Education Service
http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=2869,3047,3049,3073,3932&parent_directory_id=2865&pagetype=&key
word=&id=7786
Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions
Thirteenth Report http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmodpm/633/63306.htm
Gypsy Travellers: A Policing Strategy, Inspector Ian Taggart LLB, Grampian Police
http://www.bemis.org.uk/resources/gt/scotland/home%20office%20-%20gypsy%20travellers%20-
%20a%20policing%20strategy-UK.pdf
GRT History Month http://grthm.natt.org.uk/timeline.php
Royal College of Nursing, Gypsy & Traveller Communities
http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/social_inclusion/gypsy_and_traveller_communities
A Big or Divided Society? Final Recommendations and Report of the Panel Review into the Coalition Government
Policy on Gypsies and Travellers http://www.travellersaidtrust.org/big_or_divided_society.pdf
7.0 ARRIVING IN WALES
The Roma who came to Britain spoke at least two different dialects of their language and
called themselves by two different names, Romanichal and Kalé. The Romanichal travelled
mainly in England, and the Kalé eventually decided upon Wales. It was the latter dialect that
became ‘the dialect of the Gypsies of Wales’. The most likely entry point for the Kalé was via
Spain, France, crossing to Cornwall, and then to the Welsh borders and various towns in Wales.
There were many different family groups that traversed England and Wales, but the family that
became renowned in Wales for its tri-lingualism and musicianship was the Teulu Abram Wood
(family of Abram Wood) and its descendants, in particular the family of John Roberts of
Newtown. Abram Wood became the ‘father’ of generations of music makers. Originally each
Gypsy family restricted its wanderings to an established and well-defined circuit which, in the
case of the Woods, must originally have included the whole of Wales. The Woods were
apparently the first Gypsies to adopt Wales as their home, but as other families followed them
they tended to limit their wanderings to north Wales. Also travelling in north Wales were the
Lee, Lovell and Ingram families, whilst the Locks preferred the Welsh Borders. In south Wales
the families were mainly Romanichal from England.
It is probable that Abram Wood and his family entered Wales from the Somerset region as a
small group of closely related individuals during the later part of the seventeenth century, or
earlier part of the eighteenth century, and certainly before 1760. They travelled on foot and
used mules or donkeys to carry their possessions in large leather saddle-packs. As the years
passed they were accepted as part of the background of rural life in north Wales because of
their contribution to the social life of the community. A living was made from harp and fiddle
playing; horse dealing; basket making; wood cutting; peg, net and lace making; fishing and
fortune telling. On their travels they usually slept in barns, or sometimes tents. They helped
farmers with harvest work and provided amusement in the evenings with their fiddles and
harps. Those who followed barns used to call gentlemen’s houses with the harps, and used to be
called in and make a good thing of it. (John Roberts)
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Timeline in Wales
1579 Earliest recorded reference to Gypsies in Wales – the Sheriffe of the countie of Radnor
‘apprehended the number of xltie vagrant personnes, terming themselfes Egiptiens’.
Late 16th century
Morris Kyffin refers to siapsach a gweflau sipswn in a cywydd (strict-metre rhyming
couplets).
Siôn Tudur in an englyn met ‘a great Gibbsie of an Alehouse, in St Asaph’ (a female,
apparently Welsh-speaking).
Hityn Grydd in an englyn mentions ‘A number of Gibbsies or counterfeight Egiptians
came to Wrecsam’.
1676 Earliest estimated date for the arrival of Abram Wood and his family. ‘He brought with
him a violin, and he is supposed to be the first one that ever played upon one in
Wales.’ (John Roberts, great-grandson of Abram, 1876)
1700 Estimated date for the arrival of Gypsies in Llanidloes (who adopted the local gentry
name ‘Ingram’) and in Carmarthen (who adopted the local gentry name ‘Wood’).
1703 Ellis Wynne refers to ‘a pack of hungry gipsies’ and ‘twenty demons … which turned out
to be gipsies’ in Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg (The Visions of the Sleeping Bard).
1715 Baptism of ‘Bohemia, the son of Abraham Wood, as supposed King of ye Gypsyes, of
ffroom, in Co. Somerset’ registered at Selattyn.
1730 Latest estimated date for the arrival of Abram Wood and his family.
1760 Baptism record of ‘Solomon the son of Abram Wood … a vagrant’ at Llangernyw. This is
the first record of the family that became known in Wales as Teulu Abram Wood and
which produced many generations of musicians.
1770 John Walters in An English-Welsh Dictionary (1770-94) stated that Gypsy was
‘corrupted from Egyptian’ and signified ‘a vagabond of tawny complexion, who
pretends to tell fortunes, &c.’
1785 Burial of Sarah Wood ‘a travelling woman’ at Selattyn.
1787 The play Pleser a Gofid (Pleasure and Grief) by Thomas Edwards/Twm o’r Nant has a
Gypsy character called Aunty Sal from south Wales. This play includes the first portrait
of a Gypsy in Welsh literature and the earliest literary allusion to Abram Wood, founder
of the principal family of Welsh Gypsies.
1796 Thomas Pennant in The History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell states
‘… in some distant time a gang of gipsies used to haunt this dingle, and that eighteen of
them were executed, after which the gipsey race never more frequented the
neighbourhood’ [Whitford in Flint].
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1799 Burial of ‘Abram Wood, a travelling Gypsy’ at Llangelynnin.
1822 Gwallter Mechain in his Journal and Diary observed that ‘formerly there were two
Branches of Gypsies perambulating Wales – one of the surname Woods, the other of
Ingram’.
1823 A letter in Seren Gomer (February) includes a list of Romani words and their Welsh
equivalents spoken by the Shipswnt ‘who have lived in our country for ages’ and the
writer comments on their ‘proneness to live in tents’.
1823 Seren Gomer (May) reports on a band of Gypsies camped near Monmouth who
‘practised their cheating tricks of reading fortunes, and increasing riches, &c.’
1826 Seren Gomer (August) reports that a farmer’s wife in Carmarthenshire was persuaded
by a Gypsy woman to part with over sixty pounds in the hope of gaining five thousand.
The sixty pounds disappeared along with the Gypsy.
1832 A poem by Absalom Roberts, Ar Ffolineb Swyn-Gyfaredd, a phob Ofergoelion Eraill (On
the Folly of Sorcery, and all other Superstitions) describes a visit to a Gypsy by two
ladies to have their fortunes told.
1923 The Life and Opinions of Robert Roberts, a Wandering Scholar, as told by himself is the
autobiography of a clergyman which includes reminiscences of his great-grandmother
from Tynyfownog (Llangernyw in west Clwyd). These describe how the family of Abram
Wood first came into the country, a ‘wild lot’ who built themselves a tŷ tywyrch (turf
house) on the common and made baskets or brooms and fished and hunted hares.
Robert Roberts’ grandfather relates that he and a cousin decided to inspect the turf
cottage where the Gypsies still lived and found them ‘making merry, feasting and
entertaining other company with their fiddles’.
1957 The relationship between Welsh and Romany cultures seems always to have been a
close one. A showman’s wagon (labelled a Gypsy caravan) was one of the very few
artefacts to appear at the Welsh Folk Museum in Iorwerth Peate's time (founder of the
Welsh Folk Museum) and with his blessing which was not 100 per cent Welsh.
1968 Iorwerth Peate wrote in the Handbook of the Welsh Folk Museum of the 'colourful'
contribution that the Gypsies had made to Welsh life.
All of Abram’s four children took spouses from other families (some Gypsy, some Welsh) and
of Abram’s twenty grandchildren, nine married Welsh spouses, while eight married their
cousins. These opposing tendencies continued into the twentieth century, by which time
marriage within the family among Abram’s descendants had virtually ceased. This was the
process whereby the Woods were very gradually integrated into the community among which
they lived. The Romani language began to be neglected in favour of Welsh. As the language
died, so the characteristic Romany features began to fade and change.
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The history of the Welsh Gypsies during the twentieth century has been that of their gradual
absorption into society in general, their ever-widening dispersal, and consequently a
weakening of their sense of separateness and identity as a community. From dwelling in tents
and inhabiting barns, the families moved to renting cottages for the winter months and
travelling in the spring-autumn months. Some of those who moved into houses sought to
satisfy their wanderlust by moving at intervals from house to house, following a circuit of the
north Wales towns of Caernarfon, Machynlleth, Bala and Newtown. Such migrants from
domicile to domicile were regarded with disfavour by the true itinerants of the road, who
labelled them ‘house-Gypsies’. But the process of integration was well underway by the 1880s,
by which time the Woods and Ingrams were all settled in houses.
Religion also took hold, in particular of John Roberts of Newtown. It had played little part in
his early life, but he later became a devout and staunch member of the Church in Newtown …
two of his sons became lay preachers.
_____________________________________________________________________
Sources: Ingram[G], 2012; Jarman[G], 1991; Roberts[G], 1981
8.0 LANGUAGE AND MUSIC
In England the Romani language lived on until the nineteenth century, but was dying out and
rare to find by 1875. In its place a form of speech emerged called pogadi chib (‘broken
language’). This used Romani words but English grammar and word order. This was used as a
contact language between Romanies and other travellers, and amongst themselves as a
spoken-only language separate from English. This Anglo-Romani is still used today by many
families and has been adopted to some extent by Irish Travellers.
In Wales the Kalé dialect, having lost contact with its cousin in England, continued to be used
as a spoken-only pure dialect with its own grammar. This wasn’t really discovered until 1894
and it was believed that pure Romani had died out in Britain. Meanwhile in Europe, Romanés
was being used as a spoken and written language. However, H. Francis Jones, in the North
Wales Weekly News in 1932, wrote: But what gained for Teulu Abram Wood the deepest respect
and affection of the Welsh people was their interest in our national music.
The principal source of knowledge of Abram Wood and his family is Dr. John Sampson, a
Romani scholar from Liverpool University. He spoke Romani fluently (gained from European
Roma) and had studied the customs and remnants of the language of the English Gypsies. In
his preface to the Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales (1926) he writes:
‘… in the summer of 1894, when on a caravan tour through north Wales, I chanced on a
Welsh Gypsy harper at Bala, and made the discovery that the ancient Romani tongue,
so long extinct in England and Scotland, had been miraculously preserved by the
Gypsies of the Principality … and the dialect so religiously kept intact in the fastnesses
of Cambria is thus a survival of the oldest and purest form of British Romani.’
Edward Wood, the Gypsy harper discovered by Sampson, ‘was trilingual, and spoke Romani,
English, and Welsh with equal facility – indeed it was on his own knowledge of the latter tongue
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that he especially prided himself, speaking it (as has been recorded) like one of the old-fashioned
Welsh gentlefolk’. Edward was known as ‘Telynor Meirion’ and played before King Edward VII
(when Prince of Wales) at Ruthin Castle, and before Queen Victoria at Palé Hall in 1889. In
1929 Professor J. Glyn Davies writes that the Woods ‘must have been able to speak Welsh of the
“puritan” class, with its strict taboos on slovenly expressions, clipped words, redundancies and
noisy voice. Both Edward Wood and Matthew Wood prided themselves on such Welsh. They
spoke it beautifully like old fashioned gentle folk.’ He queries whether this was originally the
Welsh of substantial and well-bred folk in the late eighteenth century. He also writes in 1952
of Edward’s ‘extensive knowledge of harp melodies and folk-tunes’.
By 1896 Sampson had discovered several other members of the Wood family who were all
able to speak Welsh and English, but who used Romani as their mother tongue. Sampson took
a cottage at Bettws Gwerfil Goch and began collecting the samples of Romani language and
folk-tales that were to make up the bulk of his studies. At a local inn his ‘evenings are enlivened
with harp playing and singing. Matthew [Wood], for my delectation, has produced an old fiddle
and, with true Gypsy ingenuity, has improvised a bow from an ash plant and hairs plucked from
the tail of a cart horse.’
A colleague of Sampson at Liverpool University, Professor Kuno Meyer, wrote in the Liverpool
Mercury in 1896:
Some time ago, in a paper read before a literary society at Caernarvon, I spoke of the
existence in Wales of a trilingual race – the Welsh Gypsies … who constantly employ
three languages so widely differing in structure and vocabulary as Romanés, Welsh,
and English, speak a better English than the average Welshman, and a much purer and
correcter Romanés than their English relations. […] In Wales, just as in Hungary and
Russia, this gifted race have become the best interpreters of the national music of their
adopted country. Both on the old triple harp and its modern rival, the pedal harp, they
seem to me to excel by infusing into Celtic music something of the spirit of magic
which is commonly attributed to their race.
Valentine Wood (son of Abram) was the first of the Woods to take up harp-playing, during the
1770s. William, another son, was a ‘sweet violin player’. Solomon, another son, held evenings
of mirth and festivity at his cottage – the Woods began to take houses to live in during the
winter months, resuming their wanderings in the summer months. Jeremiah, another son, was
known as ‘Jerry Bach Gogerddan’ a famous performer on the triple harp, harpist to the Price
family of Gogerddan for over fifty years. Descendants of these four sons mostly all went on to
become well-known harpers, fiddlers, singers and dancers.
Ernest Roberts[G] (1981) describes the Gypsy style of harp playing as ‘essentially emotional,
rhythmical and melodious and to achieve it they frequently resorted to improvisation …
bringing to it a personal involvement and panache’. An ‘inventive and spontaneous style’
characterised their violin playing. When speaking of his great-grandfather John Roberts he
writes: Like the Gypsies of other European countries, notably Hungary and Spain, who took over
the national musical instruments of the countries in which they had made their homes, he, his
sons and grandson had taken over the national instrument of Wales, bringing to it a unique style
of playing.
42
John Roberts himself wrote in 1889: A pure Welsh harper (one who has love for his country)
ought to be well averst with the history of his country – and to be acquainted with the
mountains, valleys, Rocks, Rivers, Dingles and Dales – so as to be able to give a true sound to his
national music – he ought to have a smile on his Face, or a Tear in his Eye … to express those
ideas.
Timeline of Welsh Gypsy music
1735 Welsh traditional music declined with the rise of Nonconformist religion which began
at Talgarth in 1735, which emphasised choral singing over instruments, and religious
over secular uses of music; traditional musical styles became associated with
drunkenness and immorality. The development of hymn singing in Wales is closely tied
with the Welsh Methodist revival of the late eighteenth century. The hymns were
popularised by writers such as William Williams, while others were set to popular
secular tunes or adopted Welsh ballad tunes.
1780s The appointment of Henry Mills as a musical overseer to the Welsh Methodist
congregations saw a drive to improve singing throughout Wales. This saw the
formation of local musical societies and in the first half of the nineteenth century
collections of tunes were printed and distributed.
1797 The oil painting ‘Fair Day, Aberystwyth, 1797’ by Samuel Ireland shows the harp and
fiddle as dominating popular music-making, despite the antagonism of religious
revivalists. The original is at the Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans.
1815 William Wood (son of Abram) had four daughters and the youngest of these, Sarah,
married a Welshman, John Robert Lewis of Pentrefoelas. They were the parents of John
Roberts of Newtown. The father of John Robert Lewis (Robert Lewis) was known
throughout the locality as Yr Hen Baledwr Penffair (the old fairground ballad singer), so
John Roberts of Newtown inherited music from both sides of his family.
1816 John Roberts, Telynor Cymru (Harpist of Wales), born at Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch.
Travelled with the family as a child, living in tents and barns.
1826 John Wood Jones (taught by his father Valentine and Richard Roberts of Caernarfon)
gained the silver harp at the Brecon Eisteddfod. Richard Roberts benefited from the
tutoring of a long line of harpers who derived their art from the ancient harpers of
Wales. John Wood Jones therefore took his place among the ‘ancient harpers’ and was
the first Wood to perform before the royal family.
1823 Benjamin Wood Jones (John’s brother) competed on the harp at the Carmarthen
Eisteddfod playing Nos Calan. The earliest reference to a Wood family member in an
eisteddfod.
1830 John Roberts enlisted as a drummer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. After enlisting he
learned to read music and to play various instruments in the military band,
43
concentrating on the harp. He became skilled at arranging old Welsh airs for different
instruments.
1834 John Roberts performed before Princess Royal Victoria at Portsmouth.
1835 John Roberts performed before Princess Royal Victoria twice at Winchester.
1839 John Roberts left the army and returned home to marry. The people of the
neighbourhood soon came to know that I came home, and a great many visited our
camp, some of the highest; and I had to play my harp for them to dance upon the green,
and they made me a very great welcome. John and his wife had thirteen children,
including nine sons who were all musicians, playing harp, flagelot, piccolo, viol and
violin.
1842 Unable to afford a harp, John Roberts set out to win one. He won the Tredegar prize
harp at Abergavenny Eisteddfod.
1843 John Wood Jones accompanied Carnhuanawc and Thomas Gruffydd on a visit to
Buckingham Palace to present a triple harp to the Prince of Wales. The two harpists
played before the royal family and Queen Victoria. He became domestic harper to Sir
Benjamin Hall of Llanover.
1844 For the next six years John Roberts and his wife Eleanor entertained with harp, fiddle,
tambourine and singing and dancing at village halls, inns and gentry houses. Eleanor
also told fortunes.
1847 A group of Gypsy violin players from the Lee family played at a fair in Llanfyllin.
1847 John Roberts performed before the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia at Aberyswyth.
1848 John Roberts performed before the King of the Belgians at Swansea.
1848 John Roberts won first prize for harp-playing at Abergavenny Eisteddfod.
1850 John Roberts won first prize for triple harp-playing at Cardiff Eisteddfod.
1850 Mary Ann Roberts (John Roberts’ daughter, aged ten) won a prize at Rhuddlan Royal
Eisteddfod for harp-playing.
1854 Congregational singing was given further impetus with the arrival of the temperance
movement, which saw the Temperance Choral Union organising annual singing
festivals; these included hymn singing by combined choirs.
1855 John Roberts issued a challenge in Bell’s Life in London:
John Roberts, Welsh harpist & violinist, Newtown, will play any man upon the above
two instruments for £5 or £50. Any party accepting the above challenge must be
44
thoroughly acquainted with the ancient music for the Welsh harp and operatic music
for the violin. There is no record of the challenge being taken up.
1858 Mary Ann Roberts won a gold medal at Llangollen Eisteddfod for singing and harpplaying.
Also a prize for a solo performance on the triple harp.
1859 The publication of Llyfr Tonau Cynulleidfaol by Ieuan Gwyllt provided congregations
with a body of standard tunes that were less complex with unadorned harmonies. This
collection began the practice of combining together to sing tunes from the book, and
laid the foundation for hymn singing festivals (Cymanfa Ganu).
1859 John and Mary Ann Roberts performed before the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough,
the Earl and Countess Vane and ‘other distinguished persons’.
1860s A revival of traditional Welsh music began, with the formation of the National
Eisteddfod Society, followed by the foundation of Welsh Societies in London.
1861 A visiting musician to a performance by John and Mary Ann Roberts at Aberystwyth
commented that their manner of playing and singing was ‘the only legitimate
performance we have now of the style in which the ancient bards must have played –
free from all the meretricious aids of the modern school’.
1865 Lloyd Wynn (son) won chief prize for harp-playing at Aberystwyth National Eisteddfod.
1868 John Roberts secured a testimonial from Ceiriog, the most popular Welsh lyric poet of
the time. By request, John Roberts played the harp for Ceiriog when he lay on his
deathbed in 1887.
1877 Charles Leland (American folklorist) met Matthew Wood in Aberystwyth and joined him
at a wayside inn where ‘A quart of ale, and the fiddle was set going ... Then the girl
danced solo … to her brother’s fiddling … he proceeded to pour forth the balance of his
thoughts, if he had any, into the music of his violin.’
1877 John Roberts formed his family of musicians into the Original Cambrian Minstrels,
playing English pedal harps, Welsh triple harps, flageolet, double bass, violincello and
violin. Tours were undertaken with the instruments loaded onto a horse-drawn fourwheeled
dray.
1878 Albert Roberts (son) ‘Telynor Hafren’ won the competition harp at Llanrwst Eisteddfod.
He also gained the bardic title Pencerdd y Delyn Deir-rhes (Chief harpist on the triplestring
harp) – date unsure. Famous for his variations on Welsh airs.
1879 Summer tour of the Roberts Family, with one son stopping off en route to play harp to
the Officers’ Mess in Welshpool.
1879 Mr & Mrs Proctor of Aberhafesp Hall engaged the family to play as a band twice a
week during the summer. Other gentry clients included the Kinmell Family (St Asaph);
45
Lord Sudley (Gregynog); the Earl of Powys (Powys Castle); the Earl of Denbigh
(‘Downing’); Lady Llanover (Llanover Court, Abergavenny); Sir John Bailey (Glanwsk).
1879 A folk-tale written in Romani by John Roberts appeared in full in the ninth edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
1880 In Gipsy Tents published by Francis Hindes Groome, husband of John Roberts’ niece,
including tales and reminiscences from John Roberts.
1881 John Roberts and son Albert played, and Charles Wood sang, before the Empress of
Austria at Combermere Abbey, Whitchurch.
1882 John Roberts and seven sons gave a performance in a cavern near Builth. When the
River Severn froze in Newtown the Robertses would play for the skaters whilst
chestnuts were roasted on braziers on the river bank.
1884 John Roberts was invested with the bardic title ‘Telynor Cymru’ (Harpist of Wales) at
Glan Geirionydd. Before this he was known as ‘Alaw Elwy’ (bardic name).
1889 John Roberts and nine sons, plus Edward Wood (Telynor Meirion), all played on harps
before Queen Victoria at Palé Hall, Llandderfel. John Roberts also performed penillion
singing, and a quintet of five brothers played two harps simultaneously.
1894 John Roberts died aged seventy-eight at Newtown. His sons continued to function as a
band of harpists for several years after his death, but gradually the customs of hiring
harpists by the gentry came to an end. His sons continued to earn a living as solo
performers.
1896 Publication of Nicholas Bennett's Alawon fy Ngwlad (Tunes of my Land), a compilation
of traditional tunes and Welsh airs which included a biography of John Roberts.
1899 Francis Hindes Groome in Gypsy Folk-Tales writes of John Roberts: I know of no other
instance where the teller of folk-tales has also been able himself to transcribe them.
This is referring to John’s ability to read and write in English, Welsh and Romani and his
enormous ability as a storyteller.
1904 John Robert’s sons came together as a band once more to play before the King and
Queen at Elan Valley.
1913 Cornelius and Adolphus Wood made a living as wandering musicians playing
homemade box fiddles.
1931 Three generations of the Romani-descended Roberts clan temporarily revived the old
musical inter-relationship of harp and fiddle in Wales to play at the funeral of
gypsiologist Dr. John Sampson on the slopes of Y Foel Goch mountain.
46
1932 William Roberts (son of John Roberts) played the harp with the Eugene Magyar Band at
a Royal Command concert at the London Palladium, and gave nightly performances as
harpist and violinist at the Phoenix Theatre.
1949 Howel Wood clog-danced on a table in the film The Last Days of Dolwyn. His obituary
in 1967 described him as A Fiddler, Dancer and Fisherman. His contribution on the fiddle
was his own music, the clog dance was his own special creation, or that of his family …
John Roberts was not the first of the descendants of Abram Wood to adopt the harp as a
mode of livelihood, but he was the first to organize the exercise f his craft on a firm and
business-like family basis. For many years, under the title of ‘The Roberts Family’ or ‘The
Cambrian Minstrels’, he and his sons were widely known and acclaimed throughout the whole
of north Wales, and much of south Wales. Their livelihood was not dependent solely on
popular support, with the landed gentry encouraging music, and visits to gentlemen’s houses
as musical entertainers were frequent.
However, following his death the decline in Welsh Gypsy music began. It is known that his son
Reuben taught the harp to his son, Ernest France, who served in the South African War as
Regimental Harpist with the South Wales Borderers. Ernest in turn taught the harp to his
daughter, Eldra Jarman. Neither of Eldra’s daughters took up harp playing, although Eldra did
teach her grandson to play. He does not play professionally or in public, however, and there
seems to be no other descendant of the Wood or Roberts family who continues the Welsh
Gypsy harp-playing tradition.
The leading exponent today of the Welsh triple harp is Robin Huw Bowen[NG]. After meeting
Eldra on a television chat show in 1991, he asked if she would teach him her style of harp
playing. Unknown to him, Eldra had been searching for someone suitable to pass on her music
to, and finally agreed to teach Robin. She taught him by ear, harp-to-harp, and Robin
remembers after he had mastered one particularly difficult piece, Eldra said: ‘Very good. You’ve
learnt the notes. Now you just need to learn the music.’ By this she meant the spirit that
needed to be invested in the music, the soul and verve brought to Welsh music by the Gypsy
style of playing. Robin confirms that, to his knowledge, there are no remaining Welsh Gypsy
musicians as John Roberts’ descendants gradually dissipated throughout Wales, England and
overseas. Robin (and his pupils) remain the only exponents of the Gypsy style of playing and
he is called upon to provide music and perform at Gypsy-related events, television
programmes and in memory of Eldra.
Meredydd Evans[NG], a respected Welsh folk music expert, has spent a great deal of time with
Gypsies in Wales and confirms that he only ever knew them to play Welsh songs with their
own variations. They played harp and fiddle, didn’t sing or compose, and played Welsh songs
in their own style. There were other Gypsy musicians in Wales from time to time, but apart
from the Wood/Roberts family ‘nothing really serious’. Meredydd believes that the main
contribution to Wales of the Gypsies was to keep alive Welsh folk music, as they continued to
play and dance in remote barns throughout the Welsh Methodist prohibition of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He does not believe there are any Gypsy musicians in
Wales today.
47
Sam Lee[G] is a musician from an English Gypsy background who is researching and
documenting the music and stories of the Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities. In
Wales he has found Irish Travellers who are ‘exceptionally musical and sing without
instruments slow, long, ornamental, beautiful songs’. But these are personal and family songs,
of academic interest only, and they would not be performed outside the family setting. He has
not found any Romany Gypsy musicians in Wales and believes that any descendants of the
Wood/Roberts family (of which there must be many) have either been absorbed into
mainstream society and are not self-identifying as Gypsy, are not musicians, or have moved
away from Wales. He remains ever-hopeful of finding a genuine Gypsy musician in a pub one
day.
Andrée Morgan Andrews[G] knows of musicians with a Gypsy background (such as Albert Lee in
Eric Clapton’s backing band) but confirms that any music or singing within her community is a
private and family affair, and not for public consumption.
The story of Abram Wood and his clan of Welsh Gypsies is now a richly coloured thread running
through the tapestry of the social and cultural history of eighteenth and nineteenth century
Wales (Roberts, 1981), but the thread seems to have reached its natural end. European Roma
who work in a nationally-defined musical genre are not recognised as Roma/Gypsy at all, and
similarly Gypsies in Wales have dispersed and/or melted into the Welsh host background. The
musical heritage of the English Romanichals has become almost wholly absorbed as ‘folk
music’. By contrast, Edinburgh University’s Centre for Scottish Studies has an unrivalled archive
of recordings from Scottish Gypsy-Traveller singers.
Aside from Robin Huw Bowen there are a number of non-Gypsy musicians in Wales who play
‘Gypsy style’ music, such as: Billy Thompson, Los Amigos, Clerorfa, Carwyn Fowler (Towyn),
Heulwen Thomas, and Five Go Swing. The Devil’s Violin performs a mix of traditional music
and storytelling, ‘inspired by the passion and energy of the Gypsy tradition, including longforgotten
Gypsy tales from Wales’. All of the interviewees (on the list below) were asked, but
not one could identify a professional musician in Wales today with Gypsy ancestry.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sources: Ingram[G], 2012; Jarman[G], 1991; Roberts[G], 1981; Sampson, 1926; various interviewees, 2012
9.0 PROGRESS AND THE CURRENT POSITION
9.1 Wales leading the way
Wales is currently at the forefront of progressive thinking and action on Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller issues in the UK. This has come about due to a convergence of academic interests,
practical activism, individual determination, legal initiatives and political will – particularly in
Cardiff – that has spread across the country in recent decades.
In the 1970s a voluntary school for Gypsy children was set up by the late Grace Edwards
(mother of Julie Morgan, AM) at East Moors, and St David’s Gypsy School became the basis for
Gypsy and Traveller education in Cardiff. The school was free to attend and followed a
progressive system (i.e. it was not formally structured) with teachers from a voluntary Gypsy
48
Support Group offering their services free of charge. Children were taken on trips, on visits to
the park, etc. and were collected from Rover Way site. A bus was provided by Save the
Children, and petrol was paid for by the local authority, but other than this, mainstream
resources were not available to St David’s and there was little formal integration with the
mainstream education system. The aims of the school were: (i) To advance the education of the
children of Travellers (Gypsies) for whom attendance at a permanent school is not possible for
whatever cause by the provision of a school and teaching in basic literacy and numeracy. (ii) To
provide safe and satisfying play facilities for those Gypsy children under school age.
Parents were concerned as the children were not necessarily being taught to read and write,
but a local primary school provided separate classes for Gypsies and Travellers at the same
time as St David’s School was operating and treated the children in a very patronising manner.
For example, the children’s clothes would be taken from them and washed. This simply
resulted in the clothes being destroyed by the family as they were then considered mochadi,
and this was not the way forward. St David’s School was therefore preferred by parents,
despite its lack of formal education, to the option of the mochadi primary school.
This resulted in the local authority appointing a Home School Liaison Officer, whose job was to
mainstream Gypsy and Traveller education, based on an integrated approach. The plan was
that the Traveller Education Service would provide in-class support, based on a Gypsy or
Traveller teacher and assistant working alongside teachers in the classroom. This supported
the mainstream education approach and worked reasonably well whilst children were in
primary education. It became more difficult to persuade parents to allow children to continue
into secondary education, and this remains the case. Parents distrust the potential exposure to
sex, drugs, cultural and mochadi issues in secondary education, and school also conflicts with
the Romani tradition of taking on adult roles early in life. Children are considered adult at the
age of ten, when their training for an economic adult life begins within the family, and they
tend to marry around the age of sixteen. As a result, 90 per cent of Gypsies and Travellers over
the age of twenty-five have limited reading and writing skills. Women over the age of eighteen
who do work outside the home (around 20-30 per cent in Cardiff) are in low-paid, unskilled
jobs. Girls who do not work outside the home are expected to learn the skills of family care
and home-making from the age of ten, ready for their marriage at an early age.
From the impetus of St David’s Gypsy School and the Gypsy support group that it engendered,
a variety of interests began to converge and Cardiff became the focal point for a number of
initiatives and reports (including a number of ‘firsts’) that advanced GRT causes in Wales.
These included:
1977 Welsh Office Circular 51/77 - Caravan Sites Act 1968 - Part II: Gypsy Caravan
Sites, Welsh Office (March 1977)
1978 Welsh Office Circular 97/78 - Accommodation for Gypsies: Report by Sir John
Cripps, Welsh Office (August 1978)
1981 Cardiff City Council appointed its first Gypsy Liaison Officer, Tim Wilson, and the
Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Project was founded. The duty conferred on local
authorities by the 1968 Caravan Sites Act meant that the county council had to
49
provide the sites, and the city council was obliged to manage them. The longstanding
use of Rover Way as an unregulated Gypsy site had reduced it to a
pitiful state, and it was realised that liaison was needed in order to build a local
authority site that could be regulated and maintained. Representatives from
third sector organisations, Cardiff University and interested academics,
councillors, local residents and Gypsy and Traveller groups came together with
the newly-appointed liaison officer to discuss development of Rover Way site.
Tim Wilson had a great deal of previous experience from Gypsy site
management in Hertfordshire and managed the development of the site at
Rover Way in the 1980s, and the development of the site at Shirenewton in the
1990s. The extent and quality of consultation between the local authority and
Gypsy and Traveller families led to Shirenewton becoming the largest local
authority site in Europe, and Cardiff City Council being seen as a pioneer of
good practice in site development.
1985 The expectation that children should move out of formal education as they
reach secondary school age and learn about their role as a Gypsy/Traveller
was referred to in the Swann report 1985 Education for All: The report of the
Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority
Groups.
1988 In January 1988 a group of Travellers, civil liberty campaigners and solicitors
came together and formally set up The Travellers Aid Trust as a registered
charity. The two main objectives of the charity are:
The relief of poverty, hardship, sickness and distress among such
persons as adopt, whether temporarily or permanently and regardless of
race, culture, nationality or ethnic origins, a nomadic style or habit of life
(herein after referred to as ‘Travellers’).
The advancement of education among the children of Travellers by
attendance at school or otherwise.
Following a dormant period in the 1990s the charity was revived in 2000 and
is the only independent grant-maker dedicated specifically to supporting
Gypsies and Travellers in the UK, based in Carmarthen.
The objectives of the Trust are: (i) Developing and delivering a range of small
or targeted grants programmes aimed at benefiting individual Travellers and
the Traveller community. These grants programmes are either funded by the
Trust’s own asset or through grants from other grant makers. (ii) Working with
other grant makers to improve grant making practices to Travellers. (iii) In
exceptional circumstances, securing funding and administering projects that
are seen to be of benefit to the Traveller community as a whole.
1990 Welsh Office Circular 52/90 - Meeting the educational needs of Travellers and
displaced persons, Welsh Office (1990)
50
1994 Welsh Office Circular 02/94 - Gypsy sites and planning, Welsh Office, (January
1994)
1994 The Criminal Justice Act brought an end to the duty on local authorities to
provide sites, and also brought an end to the funding provided for the
purpose. Whilst awareness of GRT issues at a national level was needed for
guidance and direction, it became clear that action at a local level was needed
irrespective of the UK position. As Wales was smaller it was easier to put
forward political and legal arguments, which began to happen on a regular
basis. Julie Morgan AM has long been at the forefront of campaigning for
such causes, taking after her late mother Grace Edwards. ‘Mum was a great
pioneer on that front and it’s been a subject very close to my heart for many
years,’ she says.
1995 The Traveller Law Research Unit (TLRU) was set up at Cardiff University by
Luke Clements, a Professor at Cardiff Law School. He is also a consultant
solicitor specialising in public and human rights proceedings on behalf of
socially excluded groups, primarily disabled people and Roma.
As part of the Research Unit, the Telephone Legal Advice Service for Travellers
(TLAST) operated between 1995 and 1998. The service provided legal advice
and information to Gypsies and Travellers on any subject, and retained
information on a network of `Traveller-friendly' solicitors throughout the UK.
Many of these solicitors offer a 24-hour service and will attend roadside
evictions, travel to sites, and prepare cases for the British and European
courts. Accessing legal advice by mobile telephone proved more useful for
Travellers in isolated locations, and around fifty per cent of calls received were
from Gypsies and Travellers (the other fifty per cent being from Travellerrelated
service providers, government officers, academics, police, media, etc.)
TLAST was a unique service within Europe, funded by the Nuffield Foundation
and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, with Cardiff Law School covering
infrastructure costs.
The closure of the service in 1998 realised the following legacy:
The collation of a broad network of Travellers and Traveller-related
service providers – in particular ‘Traveller-friendly’ lawyers – across the
country.
The production of a newsletter, Travellers’ Times, a useful networking
and information-sharing tool.
The publication of a number of articles and directories, including the
County/Unitary Authority-based Directory of Traveller-related Contacts
in England & Wales, which further provided the means of increasing
contact with useful people and information regarding the law and
services relating to Gypsies and Travellers.
Professor Luke Clements conducted and advised on many cases before
the Commission and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, including the
first Roma case to reach that court (Buckley v. UK 1996).
51
A conference on Traveller law reform in March 1997, at which nearly 100
Travellers and service providers took the first step towards discussion
and agreement of necessary reforms for Gypsies and Travellers in
Britain.
From May 1998 for one year the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
funded TLRU to undertake research into the outcome for Travellers of
the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and to develop the
process of law reform started at the conference; Cardiff Law School
continued to pay the infrastructure costs.
Joseph Rowntree and Cardiff Law School granted TLRU further support
to continue research and facilitation of a process of law reform until
October 2000.
1996 Several local authorities in Wales established Traveller Education Services
(TES), largely funded through the Education of Travellers and Displaced
Persons Grant which is paid under section 488 of the Education Act 1996.
The role is to facilitate access into the education system for Gypsy and
Traveller pupils and to support them in the system.
1996 Written theory driving test introduced in the UK.
1997 A Welsh Office survey of Gypsy-Travellers, in January 1997, estimated that
there were 846 Gypsy-Traveller children in Wales: 268 between the age of 0-4,
369 between 5-10, and 209 between 11-16.
1998 Cardiff University and the Save the Children published a report called
‘Traveller Children and Educational Need in Wales’. The Report suggested that
there were at least 1,809 Traveller children in Wales, a much higher number
than the Welsh Office survey.
1999 The Community Law Partnership was established in Birmingham with a
Travellers Advice Team (TAT) of solicitors providing legal advice to Gypsies
and Travellers. Following the lead set by TLAST, the Team set up a dedicated
Telephone Advice Line for Travellers where callers can speak directly to
experienced advisers on questions of evictions, planning matters, issues
involving official caravan sites and other matters. The Travellers Advice Team
provides emergency 24-hour national advice and representation and works
closely with other non-government agencies working with Travellers. Without
the assistance of TAT, many Travellers would be denied access to the legal
system and to their rights.
1999 Injury Rates in Gypsy-Traveller Children, Hilary Beach, University of Wales
College of Medicine (April 1999)
2000 Driving theory test updated to a computer-based test in place of a written
examination. Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Project introduced Driving Theory
classes on a twice-weekly basis. These include essential learning skills,
52
sessions on reading, writing, computers and driving theory, with DVDs to take
home and study. The classes are for all ages and have managed to attract
boys and men to take part. These classes were unique in Wales at the time of
their introduction.
2000 The Invisibility of Gypsies and Other Travellers: The Journal of Social Welfare
and Family Law, Rachel Morris and Luke Clements (Jan 2000)
2001 Disability, Social Care, Health and Travelling People, Rachel Morris and Luke
Clements, Cardiff Traveller Law Research Unit (2001)
2002 Traveller Law Reform Bill published, leading to the founding of the Gypsy and
Traveller Law Reform Coalition.
The pressure put on local politicians from a range of interested parties, such as TLAST, Cardiff
University (Professors Luke Clements and Phil Thomas), Tim Wilson and a core group of
academics and practitioners worked – making Gypsies and Travellers the first major issue to be
looked at by the new National Assembly of Wales’ Equality of Opportunity Committee. At the
Committee Seminar on Service Provision for Gypsies and Travellers (11 October 2002) the
Chair stated: This is the first policy review of the Equality of Opportunity Committee and we have
started with a complicated and difficult subject. There can be no doubt that in many respects
Gypsies and Travellers are one of the most discriminated against groups in Wales. The stark
realities laid before the Committee by a group of young people from the Gypsy-Traveller
community brought home the challenges we face in making a real difference to their lives.
http://www.assemblywales.org/N0000000000000000000000000009105.pdf
The Committee undertook an extremely thorough review of service provision and, beside the
seminar, undertook site visits around Wales, received written submissions, circulated a postal
survey and held evidence sessions. Site visits allowed Gypsies and Travellers to give their views,
and the evidence sessions gathered information on education, health, and legal issues as well
as accommodation. A group of young Gypsies and Travellers also provided evidence. Save the
Children undertook a separate survey of young Gypsy and Traveller children to provide extra
information to the Committee. Meetings were held in Ireland with the Equality Authority and
representatives of the Irish Traveller Movement and a range of government departments.
Consideration was also given to existing literature, previous studies and reports into the issues
that affect Gypsies and Travellers. Two advisers were appointed to assist the Committee with
the review: Dr. Elizabeth Jordan, Director, Scottish Traveller Education Programme and Tim
Wilson, Cardiff Gypsy Sites Group.
2003 The outcome of this exhaustive review was publication of The Equality of
Opportunity Committee Report, A review of service provision for Gypsy
Travellers, National Assembly of Wales (2003). The report produced fifty-two
recommendations, of which the following are examples:
Recommendation 7: … that the Welsh Assembly Government’s
Housing Department clarify the position on paying housing grants for
site provision and advise local authorities accordingly. We further
53
recommend that changes to primary legislation should be made to
put Gypsy and Traveller caravan sites on the same footing as other
housing stock, in terms of for example, availability of grants, pitch
allocation policy and management issues.
A toilet, washroom and utility area for each pitch – with physical
separation between the toilet, washroom and clothes washing areas.
Recommendation 20: … that there should be no expectation or
pressure for Gypsies and Travellers to move into settled housing. Where
Gypsies and Travellers do wish to move into this type of
accommodation they should receive help and support with the
application process and with managing the transition from previous
accommodation.
Recommendation 27: … that the Assembly considers forming an All
Wales steering group [to draw up best practice guidelines on health
needs, health workers, multi-agency forums, anti-discriminatory policy
reviews, providing a strategic reference point for All-Wales coordination
between professionals in other fields of service provision to
Gypsies and Travellers, such as education and accommodation].
Recommendation 50: … that the Assembly Government appoints an All
Wales Co-ordinator to champion the views and needs of Gypsies and
Travellers and drive forward service provision, working with Traveller
Education Service staff, Gypsy Liaison Officers and other service
providers and advocates for Gypsies and Travellers.
Barriers to attending school were acknowledged, including:
_ Prejudice, discrimination and bullying
_ Accommodation issues
_ Parental concerns about the school environment
_ Traditional Gypsy-Traveller model of education within the family
_ Mobility and broken patterns of education
_ Unfamiliarity of the school environment
_ Relevance of the curriculum
‘Gypsy-Travellers have a distinctive tradition of education, a tradition
which is quite alien to many of the assumptions that underlie
mainstream state education. In particular Gypsy-Travellers place a
great deal of emphasis on education within the family. Often boys will
learn a trade from their father and girl will learn to run a home and
raise a family from their mother. Basic literacy and numeracy is likely
to be valued, but many other aspects of school and the curriculum
may seem less relevant.’
The general opinion following this review was that the National Assembly for Wales had
undertaken a serious process and that most recommendations either had been carried out, or
were in the process of being carried out. Prior to the establishment of the National Assembly it
was agreed by all parties that Gypsies/Roma/Travellers were not to be used as a ‘political
football’ in the election process, and these promises were upheld. In this way, some of the
more melodramatic headlines seen in England have been avoided. The quality of politicians in
54
Wales, and the fact that they are willing to listen to GRT issues, has been positively
commented upon.
2004 Children and Young People: Rights into Action, Welsh Assembly Government
(2004)
2005 Aspinall, P. J., A review of the literature on the health beliefs, health status, and
use of services in the gypsy traveller population, and of appropriate health
care interventions, Health ASERT Programme Wales, Report 2, Project report,
Welsh Assembly Government (2005)
2005 Guidance on Managing Unauthorised Camping, Welsh Assembly Government
(2005) http://wales.gov.uk/dsjlg/publications/localgov/guidecamping/guidee.pdf?lang=en
2006 Pat Niner, Accommodation Needs of Gypsy-Travellers in Wales, University of
Birmingham, Report to Welsh Assembly Government (2006)
http://wales.gov.uk/dsjlg/research/accomneedsgypsy/researche.pdf?lang=en
2006 National Assembly for Wales Circular No: 47/2006, Inclusion and Pupil
Support for Wales
2006 The Education of Gypsy Traveller Learners: A survey of provision made by
schools and local authorities to meet the needs of Gypsy Traveller learners,
ESTYN report (2006)
2006 Jones, G. Powell, R. Reakes, S., Research into the Education of Gypsy Traveller
Children in Wales, National Foundation for Educational Research
2007 Lishman, R., Impact of Circular 01/2006, Supply of New Gypsy Traveller Sites,
De Monfort University (2007)
2007 The Welsh Assembly Government introduced Gypsy and Traveller
Refurbishment Grants and Gypsy and Traveller New Sites Grants, providing
local authorities with 75% of the costs of building new sites or refurbishing
existing sites.
2008 The Welsh Assembly Government funded Save the Children to produce a DVD
called Travelling Ahead about Gypsy and Traveller children and young people
in Wales. Save the Children also set up a website for Gypsy and Traveller
children at www.travellingahead.org.uk
2008 Powys County Council was the first local authority in Wales to employ a
member of the Gypsy community as its Gypsy Liaison Officer.
2009 Getting Involved: A report into engaging with young Gypsy Travellers in
Wales, Save the Children (2009)
55
2009 Good Practice Guide in Designing Gypsy Traveller Sites in Wales, Welsh
Assembly Government (2009)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/comm/091112gpgdesigningen.pdf
2009 Good Practice Guide in Managing Gypsy Traveller Sites in Wales, Welsh
Assembly Government (2009)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/comm/091112gpgmanagingen.pdf
The Shirenewton site in South Glamorgan is a Europe-wide example of good design and the
largest site in the European Union. It currently has 58 pitches with three more planned and an
active waiting list, which is adhered to. The site is exemplary because there was crossdepartmental
involvement at Cardiff City Council, with Environmental Health, the Planning
Department and engineers all involved in consultation with Gypsies and Travellers, ‘and they
listened’
[GW]. This allowed residents to decide aspects of the design of the site and the
consultation resulted, for example, in washing blocks being moved from the front of pitches to
the back. Also there are pitch groupings within the site – i.e. many sites within a site – as the
Welsh Gypsies and Irish Travellers don’t get on with each other in general. Shirenewton site is
made up of 25% Irish Travellers, 5% Scottish Travellers and 70% Welsh Gypsies. Rover Way has
one Irish Traveller pitch and nineteen Welsh Gypsy pitches (mainly all the Price family).[GW]
As well as a waiting list for pitches, there is a separate Transfer List, where families wait for the
chance to move next to other members of their own family. Many families are obliged to move
into housing, whilst they remain on the waiting list for a pitch on a site. From the travelling
families’ point of view, travelling is more or less finished as a way of life and they now seek a
secure base. Without this, nothing else follows easily, such as access to services, education,
health facilities, work, etc. However, travelling to horse fairs remains important to retain the
status of ‘Gypsy’ under planning law, even without a horse and wagon. Those families who
retain a wooden vardo carry it most of the distance to places such as Appleby Horse Fair on
the back of a trailer, then use it on the road drawn by a horse for the last twenty miles. These
wooden vardos are now kept as symbols of Romani culture, rather than being burnt according
to tradition. Modern caravans are still burnt under a special arrangement with the local
authority.[GW]
‘At the end of the day, they’re council tenants too, just like a lot of other people – except those
other people have never had to worry about being evicted with just a week’s notice … Living with
the fear of losing one’s home, with the risk of children being taken into care, is a constant stress
… And even those in proper housing still need our help because that’s not the way of life they
wanted and some have been known to suffer from terrible depression.’ Julie Morgan, AM
The case is slightly different regarding the European Roma who have arrived in Cardiff in
recent years, as they come from a relatively settled background and all live in houses, mainly
private rented housing. This generates a different set of issues, such as overcrowding, having
to move on a regular basis, and dealing with bad landlords. The Roma are culturally distinct
from the established Gypsy and Traveller communities in other ways, such as language, which
makes service provision for this group even more difficult. Interpreters and translators are
needed for the mainly Czech, Slovak and Romanian Roma who have arrived in Cardiff in large
numbers, particularly in 2004, 2007 and 2010. Cardiff was appointed by central government as
a designated area for refugees and asylum seekers; in 2004 the Czech Republic and Slovakia
56
were admitted to the EU, and in 2007 Romania and Bulgaria were admitted, allowing greater
freedom of movement for residents of those countries. Some Roma arrived with education
and skills, and it has been observed that Roma children do better in school compared with
Welsh Gypsies and Travellers, as they are used to a settled environment, have more
commitment to school attendance and are good at languages.
The Welsh Government has established the Migrants Forum, a national strategic group chaired
by the Minister for Social Justice, and has stated that Local Government will address any
emerging issues on European Roma. However, at local government level no specific policy,
action plan or strategy yet exists to address the needs of EU Roma migrants. Cardiff ESOL
Service offered English sessions for Roma, which have been discontinued. Cardiff Communities
First ran activities for Roma children and young people, but these have ended. Race Equality
First ran a European Migrants Outreach Project in 2007, but this project ended in 2008 as the
organisation was swamped by the number of enquiries from Roma trying to access the service.
The ethnic Minority Communities Programme has produced a report to identify the specific
challenges of dealing with EU Roma in Cardiff: EU Roma Communities in Cardiff: Community
Needs Analysis Report (April 2011) and this can be accessed in full at
http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=2%2C2867%2C3591%2C2907%2C4979%2C4980
2009 The Romani Cultural and Arts Company was established as a registered
charity by Isaac Blake[G]. Working through the arts the Company raises funds
to take community development and educational projects onto Gypsy, Roma
and Traveller sites and into non-Gypsy and ‘country-folk’ communities across
Wales. The Company exists to promote a better understanding of Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller culture within and beyond these communities and to work
to combat racism in all forms. This is a unique Gypsy-led organisation in the
UK that has gained a great deal of respect in a very short time from a wide
and appreciative group – including academics, politicians, third sector
organisations, educationalists, Gypsies and Travellers.
Generally, Gypsy and Traveller organisations have been effective when they have forged
alliances with non-Gypsies, particularly lawyers and activist academics. The Traveller Law
Reform Project (see 2002 above) focuses on working towards positive changes in the law for
Gypsy and Traveller communities, including campaigning for social policy reform. Evidence
provided to parliamentary select committees and investigations led to the establishment of
the All Party Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Group with the assistance of Lord Avebury.
2010 In July 2010 the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group,
serviced by the Traveller Law Reform Project, was held in the Palace of
Westminster.
2012 Working with Gypsy and Traveller Children and Young People, Save the
Children (2012). A guide to increasing participation of children and young
people in decision-making and policy-making.
2012 Travelling to a Better Future: Gypsy and Traveller Framework for Action and
Delivery Plan, Welsh Government (2012)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/equality/110928gypsytravelleren.pdf
57
This is the first document of its kind to be produced in the UK. It sets out
policy direction for the Welsh Government and its partners in respect of
Gypsy and Traveller issues. This Framework for Action focuses on several key
policy areas which affect the way Gypsies and Travellers access services
including accommodation, health, education, participation and planning and
other barriers facing the Gypsy and Traveller community. The Framework is
supported by a delivery plan which outlines in more detail how the Welsh
Government will deliver on the commitments in this Framework and outlines
timescales for implementation. The Framework for Action has been developed
specifically for the indigenous Gypsy and Traveller population in Wales and
does not address emerging issues as a result of migrant Roma from Bulgaria
and Romania settled in Wales.
2012 The Welsh Government’s Housing White Paper of 21 May 2012 (in
consultation) restores the duty on local authorities in Wales to provide sites,
by ‘Ensuring that Gypsy and Traveller communities are provided with new
housing sites by local authorities where there is clear evidence of need’. This is
a direct result of the lack of take-up by local authorities of the grants for
building and refurbishment of sites introduced by the Welsh Government in
2007.
2012 The Romani Cultural and Arts Company organized the first GRT National
Symposium, held at Cardiff City Hall (for Wales’ fourth Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller History Month). The speakers included an impressive line-up of
academics, politicians, representatives from education, health, children’s
organisations and the arts from the UK, US and Europe. Ian Hancock[G],
Professor of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin says, The 2012 Gypsy
Roma and Traveller National Symposium has established the place of Wales even
more firmly as a leader in recognizing these far-flung populations, their
contributions and their distinctiveness. This event … promises to become an
annual landmark.
2012 At the GRT National Symposium held in Cardiff on 22 June 2012, Jane Hutt
(Minister for Finance and Leader of the House) announced the Welsh
Government’s intention to increase grants for building and refurbishment of
sites to 100% of the cost to a local authority. This will be in conjunction with
the Housing Bill to be introduced in the autumn of 2013, and will hopefully
side-step the cost arguments put forward by local authorities to avoid
building sites. As full planning consent is needed before a grant can be
awarded, only Powys County Council at present has plans to build a new site
in Brecon (on 3.8 acres of farmland acquired by Compulsory Purchase Order).
2012 Julie Morgan AM (previously MP) for Cardiff North chaired the inaugural
Cross-Party Group meeting on Gypsies and Travellers in the Welsh
Government (17 July 2012). The Group considers issues of importance to
Gypsies and Travellers in Wales and provides a forum for representatives from
relevant organisations to meet with AMs to discuss areas of concern.
58
9.2 ‘Issues’ remaining
Wales has been the focus of music and the Romani language historically, and is the focus of
progress on GRT issues today – but this is coincidental. As the Welsh Kalé of north Wales
effectively no longer exist, their romantic image ‘doesn’t help – Augustus John and all that, it’s
not how it is today’
[GW]. As the Gypsy families living in Wales today, whether on sites or housed,
tended to originate as Romanichals from England, there are few links with the Kalé of north
Wales and the problems encountered have little connection with Welsh Gypsy history as
described at 7.0 and 8.0 above. Issues remaining for Gypsies and Travellers today range from
the minute to the mountainous, but include as examples:
Romany Gypsies in the UK have lost many of their traditions, and retain others without
exactly knowing why, or where they came from. Rediscovery of their own roots is
important, and without this it is difficult to explain their rationale on issues to nonGypsies.[G]
As the Romany tradition has been an oral one, the culture of storytelling is important.
In practice, this means that it is considered rude to interrupt, as each person must be
allowed to tell their story. When an older person speaks, younger Gypsies stop talking
due to respect for elders. This can make it difficult for Gypsies to participate in an open
exchange of views, particularly with older persons.[GW]
There is no single organisation in Wales dedicated to working for Gypsies and
Travellers, as is the case in England. A multiplicity of agencies, however well-meaning,
leads to lack of cohesion.[G]
In recent years many non-Gypsies have been forced out of their homes due to financial
problems and have taken to living in caravans. This has increased pressure on
traditional Gypsies and Travellers who are often blamed for the appearance of yet
more caravans in an area, but which have nothing to do with them.[G]
The expectation from young people, as well as their parents, that they need to start
earning money far earlier than is typical in the settled community discourages them
from continuing into secondary education.[GW]
Balancing the right to continue in this tradition with the rights of children, as enshrined
in EU and UK law on child employment, is a challenge acknowledged by the Welsh
Government.
Cultural fears of secondary education are not addressed in any education service
provision – for example, there is no male/female segregation, school uniforms require
short skirts to be worn with legs in view, whereas Gypsy girls wear a long skirt or
trousers at home.[G]
A perceived lack of morality regarding sex and drugs in the settled population makes
some parents unhappy with mixed activities.
A gender divide remains where girls are more likely to stay at home looking after the
trailer and young children.
School attendance at primary level has improved, as has behaviour and concentration.
However, high levels of illiteracy remains an issue generally.[G]
Gypsy and Traveller successes are not reported as widely as Gypsy/Traveller ‘problems’
in the press.[G] The following article is an unusual exception:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189845/Gypsy-schoolgirl-works-seafront-amusement-arcadewins-place-study-English-Literature-Oxford-University.html
Transport to and from remote sites to any kind of education remains a problem.[G]
59
Provision of health services remains difficult, as many agencies do not consider the
cultural issues surrounding Gypsies and Travellers before making recommendations for
service provision. Gypsies retain their antipathy towards doctors, female patients will
not visit male doctors, and mochadi values are not taken into account.[GW]
Gypsies and Travellers see their main ‘right’ now as being the right to their way of life,
and do not accept that inclusion need equate with assimilation. They have learnt that it
is possible to have one without the other. So they will not necessarily agree with social
inclusion policies or efforts to ‘integrate’ them with mainstream services or strategies.[G]
Similarly, the demand that Roma worldwide speak with one voice is illegitimate as it
has been shown that Roma never were one people. The different Roma groups may
have shared values, but they are enforced differently, and efforts for Roma to behave in
a predetermined way to suit a non-Gypsy agenda is now seen as structural racism.[G]
Most Gypsies and Travellers are unaware of the grant-making system, and do not know
that grant funding might be available to them.
There has been more prejudice in evidence in the UK in the past few years than has
been apparent for a long time. This is almost entirely related to media depiction by My
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and the evictions at Dale Farm.[G]
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
This programme has caused more grief and created more problems within the Gypsy
community than anything else since its broadcast. The programme was seen to
perpetuate stereotypes and to trivialise the image of ‘Gypsies’ – even though the
majority of participants were Irish Travellers and the programme should more correctly
have been called ‘Big Fat Irish Traveller Weddings’. The failure to draw a distinction
between Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers was one of the main criticisms of the
programme.
The recurring spouse abuse which featured on there would be deplored within Romani
culture, not to mention be subject to punishment agreed upon by the Kris (Gypsy
tribunal) … The tide of anti-Gypsyism is on the increase in Britain too – some of the
online blogs I’ve seen are utterly reprehensible. Ian Hancock[G]
It’s important to make them see that programmes like ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ aren’t
how it really is for us … That show disgusted me, had nothing to do with Romany
Gypsies at all … My family certainly never behaved like that. Teleri Gray[G]
Gypsy culture is much more than dresses and make-up
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/gypsy-culture-is-much-more-than-dresses-and-make-up/
Thelma’s Gypsy Girls
Bridget Deadman, 17, is an English Traveller based in Liverpool who left the televised
course after Week 10, and has been quick to correct the show on a lot of things in a
magazine interview.
Interviewer: Would you say that BFGW offered an unfair interpretation of your culture
and community?
Bridget: I think the portrayal of life for the Travellers and Gypsy community on ‘Big Fat
Gypsy Weddings’ was an untrue and misleading portrayal, but ‘Thelma’s Gypsy Girls’ was
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a lot worse. ‘Thelma’s Gypsy Girls’ concentrated a lot on the drama, violence, and dress
sense of the community even though majority of the time on the course everyone was
getting along fine and most girls were working well. They failed to show the different
beliefs and variations within the community and instead chose to show how one portion
of the community are and use this to further a stereotype of travellers and gypsies that is
very far from the truth.
http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/07/31/big-fat-gypsy-lies/
In an attempt to offset the damage caused by Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Jake Bowers[G]
of the Travellers’ Times set up Travellers Got Talent, a televised talent competition for
Gypsies and Travellers during Gypsy History Month.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3597046/Gypsies-flock-to-TV-talent-show-TravellersGot-TalentBari-Radt.html
Dale Farm
Dale Farm is a six-acre plot of land on Oak Lane in Crays Hill, Essex. It is located within
the Green Belt and has been owned by Travellers since the early 1960s. In the 1980s it
began being used as a site for Travellers when a planning appeal was won by two
families against Basildon District Council for pitches on one end of the site. This grew
into an unauthorised and illegal encampment established without planning permission
of over 1,000 Travellers, the largest Traveller site in the UK. Next to the Dale Farm site
there is an authorised Travellers' site known as Oak Lane. This has Council planning
permission, and provides 34 legal pitches. In October 2011 the site gained international
press coverage when residents and activists were forcibly removed to allow bailiffs to
execute a clearance order. What chance have we got when people are more interested in
evictions from Big Brother than from Gypsy sites?[G]
There is extensive press coverage of the Dale Farm case, but some related links are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Farm
Dale Farm Travellers hope UN official’s visit will end their plight
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/23/dale-farm-travellers-un-visit?intcmp=239
Gypsies and Travellers look for more political clout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jul/25/discrimination-at-work-roma-gypsies-andtravellers-caravans-voting-franchise?newsfeed=true
Political suicide: housing Gypsy and Traveller communities
http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2012/jul/16/local-politics-housing-gypsies-and-travellers
As a direct result of increased hostility from this media coverage there has been a false
tip-off about guns on a Welshpool Gypsy site. This led to a raid on the site by police,
who went into the site with guns, wearing balaclavas, and handcuffing people without
warning. No guns were found on the site.[G]
There have been threats on Facebook about planned refurbishment of the Welshpool
site.
[G]
In rural areas of Wales farmers remember quite fondly the Gypsies arriving to help with
farm work and fruit picking, but people retiring to rural Wales from around the UK
have a problem with Gypsy sites in their vicinity.[G]
Some Gypsies and Travellers have negative attitudes towards non-Gypsies due to
alienation and discrimination of themselves of their family.
Problems have arisen within sites at Bangor, Pyle and Port Talbot – all sites where the
local authority has handed management of them over to the Gypsy Council. These sites
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are run on a very authoritarian basis and it is extremely difficult for new families to get
a pitch on-site.[G]
Arbitrary decisions by central government affect Gypsies and Travellers in Wales. On
the one hand, Traveller pitch funding of £47m is announced by government:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/07/traveller-pitch-funding-announcedgovernment?intcmp=239
And is then followed by headlines such as ‘The gypsies who lost their homes to make
way for the Olympics’ http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/07/gypsies-who-losttheir-homes-make-way-olympics
In Marlborough Travellers take matters into their own hands through sheer
frustration: ‘Travellers invade playing fields’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2189796/Travellers-invade-playing-fields-30-000-year-Marlborough-College-Kate-Middleton-playedhockey.html
Whilst in Pontypool the solution appears to be to build extra pitches on an area of
subsidence: ‘Pontypool Race Gypsy site extension proposed by Torfaen’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-19018379
Progress is being overlooked where it does exist. Time goes on and society changes – at
the same time Romany society also changes, but this is not taken into account. It is very
difficult to conduct business by mobile phone while being treated as a quaint violinplaying
curiosity.[G]
In line with a greater take-up of computing amongst Gypsies and Travellers, On Road
Media set up the social networking site www.savvychavvy.com in 2008 and taught young
Travellers how to podcast and produce video blogs. The site has over 4,000 young
people on it, allowing young Gypsies and Travellers to communicate freely in a safe
place away from the discrimination and prejudice that many of them face daily.
They can also keep in touch with other Travellers who have largely stopped travelling.
Safe space online for real ‘chavs’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/30/communities.socialnetworking
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is still a major issue within Gypsy and Traveller communities. In the 2011
report conducted by the Travellers Aid Trust a written submission by the Association of
Chief Police Officers noted: The perception of Gypsies and Travellers and their behaviour
by the settled community is often based on stereotypical assumptions – not helped by
either national or local media – and is often negative in tone.
The examples of stereotypical representation are legion, but many are included in this
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_representations_of_Romani_people
One example that many people will remember is the Cadbury’s Flake TV advert in
1982: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIQgunHHiY This sexualises the Gypsy woman in a
way that is unacceptable in the Romany community and uses a white English girl with
1980s hairstyle and dress. It epitomises freedom in a horse-drawn wagon, whilst using
the ‘sexy Gypsy’ stereotype to sell its product. Professor Ian Hancock[G], who is
working to disperse misconceptions about his culture, also confirms There are 12
million Romanies throughout the world, and those with horse-drawn wagons number
fewer than 2%. Most of us live in houses and always have.
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Gypsy Wedding ‘stereotype’ challenged
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-18524178
The influence of the media on negative stereotyping was pointed out many times as the main
contributor to a bad overall image of Gypsies.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Tim Wilson[GW], Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Project
Andrée Morgan Andrews[G], Gypsy Liaison Officer, Powys County Council
Traveller Law Research Unit http://digitaljournalist.eu/OnTheRoad/traveller-law-research-unit/
Equality of Opportunity Committee report on Service provision for Gypsies and Travellers
http://www.assemblywales.org/N0000000000000000000000000009105.pdf
A Big or Divided Society? Final Recommendations and Report of the Panel Review into the Coalition Government
Policy on Gypsies and Travellers http://www.travellersaidtrust.org/big_or_divided_society.pdf
10.0 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANI ARTS
Romani arts have been the traditional way of survival for Roma over the centuries, with music,
dance and artisan craftsmanship being the main source of income for most Roma groups.
However, the practising of their arts and artisanship is divided into three main areas: (i)
Domestic – produced at home for the family or community; (ii) Professional – presented for a
paying audience; and (iii) Religious – performed for God or for an ideal.
As a people on the move literacy was unimportant, and the opportunities to learn to read and
write were few. Instead the Gypsies/Roma maintained an oral tradition of poetry, song and
storytelling which contained the core ideas of their culture. Storytelling was improvised, or
utilised folk tales from the countries travelled through, with Gypsy-related embellishments and
humour added to personalise the stories. In some groups long ballads were composed that
were partly sung and partly recited, telling the tale of the Roma exodus and the routes
travelled. Many tales reflect the boundary between Roma and Gadjé.
Gypsy music and dance are the best known and most widely accepted of the Romani arts,
having a long-established reputation throughout Europe. In a newly-published book, Romani
Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora (2012), the development of Romani
music is explored. Romani music encompassed three geographical regions/traditions:
(i) Middle Eastern and Balkan; (ii) Northern (Hungarian, Russian, Polish, Manouche jazz, Django
Reinhardt); and (iii) Flamenco (classical and ‘pop’). All styles are practised in the three forms of
domestic, professional and religious.
A particular musical style known as the ‘Gypsy Romance’ was formalised by urban Gypsy
choral groups in Russia in the nineteenth century. Russian folk and urban love songs were
performed with a vibrato and a semitone decoration that draws from Romani singing, and
some songs in Romani were also performed. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
choruses of Russian Roma existed in Moscow and St Petersburg and in 1886 the first-ever
Romani theatre troupe was created, performing the operetta Gypsy Songs in Faces in St
Petersburg. In 1887 Strauss’s operetta The Gypsy Baron was performed with Roma playing the
roles of Roma. This start led to the opening of the Romani studio Indo-Romen Theatre in
Moscow in 1931 which concentrated on Gypsy music and dance. The theatre was originally
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designed by Gypsies for Gypsies (with performances in Romani), but after a few years the
theatre focused on non-Gypsy audiences. The theatre company is entirely composed of
Gypsy/Roma members in all roles, from writing and directing, to performing. Its repertoire
includes plays written by its members, such as We Are Gypsies, I was Born in a Gypsy Camp and
A Girl Who Brought Happiness, as well as Russian and European works such as Pushkin's
Gypsies and Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding. The company has travelled widely and
produced films, making its work well known throughout Russia.
The International Romani Writers Association (IRWA) was founded in Finland in 2002. The main
aims of the association are to promote the multilingual Romani literature, to obtain its
recognition as part of world literature and to strengthen the language and culture of Romani
people. Some Romani authors have become well known, such as Matéo Maximoff, Paris-based
with Russian Roma ancestry. The School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, part of
Manchester University runs the Manchester Romani Project. This consists of a cluster of
academic research activities that provide information on the Romani language and on
linguistic research on Romani. It also produces teaching aids, such as its DVD ‘The Romani
Languages - An Interactive Journey’.
In the UK the only Romany-based theatre company, the Romany Theatre Company, was
established in Cambridge in 2002. The company presents drama productions aimed at
improving the wider community’s understanding of what it means to be Gypsy, Romany, or
Traveller and provides education opportunities for GRT and settled communities. The Romany
Theatre Company (RTC) was commissioned by BBC East to produce 36 x fifteen-minute
episodes of the radio drama series Atching Tan, to run from 2008 to 2010. The series explores
the relationships between members of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller and settled
communities and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Atching Tan: A Gypsy Wife is
another radio drama, this time set on a Romany Gypsy site and featuring actors from the
Romany Gypsy community. The play explores the Gypsy community from the inside.
The most visible Gypsy art is that found on the Gypsy vardo, an art form uniquely associated
with Romanies, with its most ornate examples in Europe being found in the UK. The main
motifs forming the basis of the decorative schemes are derived from art forms within the host
society, but their combined use on the highly carved and decorated wooden wagons have
made them immediately identifiable as Gypsy-style artwork. Wagon decoration was chiefly
carved, with painting and gilding in gold leaf used to highlight the carved forms. Specialist
wagon building firms would be commissioned by Gypsy families to produce wagons to their
specification, and therefore no two wagons are the same even if some motifs are repeated.
This meant that the cost of custom carved work and painting was high, and vardos were used
as a display of wealth and status by the richest Gypsy families (mainly the horse dealers).
Gypsy families who could not afford such a display of carved work commissioned the cheaper
painted decoration on plain-built wagons.
The decline in the use of horse-drawn vehicles began in the inter-war period 1920-1938, with
many wagon builders and wheelwrights switching their business to coachbuilding. This led to
an increasing number of Gypsy families meeting their own wagon and decoration needs, at
varying levels of competence. The Gypsy home-made ‘peg-knife’ wagons provided the base
for the unique art form of the painted wagon, with some converting an existing 4-wheel dray
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cart bed by adding a top. Vardo expert Peter Ingram[G] points out that whatever was to hand
was used for building and decorating. Peg knives weren’t just for carving laundry pegs; they
were also used for carving wagon details. Wagon colours were based on what was readily
available. With the Gypsy vans you only had green or maroon or yellow, because they were easy
colours to mix up in the paint mill. Yellow was used for the underworks, green or maroon for the
body. It was also common practice to buy (or build), and decorate, a wagon in stages. Many
wagons would come out painted plain and the family would take it back the following year.
That’s when it would be flashed out.
After WWII separate decorative motifs began to be synthesised into a single wagon or cart
backboard with entire surface areas being covered with decoration. These included carving,
central motifs, ribbonwork, coachlining, running scrolls and gilded features. Artistic training
was often through the process of observation and experimentation and self-taught painters
rarely worked beyond the needs of their immediate families.
Necessity, and circumstances, were often the mother of invention when it came to Gypsy
vardos. Ingram[G] remembers, It was a matter of living on your wits. Gypsy people did craftwork,
carved clothes pegs for selling, and did farm work. All the fruit and hop picking was done by
Gypsy people and local villagers, before it all got mechanized.
It’s important to realise that Gypsies never styled themselves on cottagers, they styled themselves
on the gentry. The best families considered themselves the gentry of the road, dealing with
gentry of the houses. So they had fine bone china, silver knives and forks, beautiful white lace
tablecloths. The interior of a wagon was gentrified with velvet drapes, white lace-edged cloths,
etc. They never had patchwork quilts as it is portrayed – they used sheets with lace edges, best
quality Welsh blankets, and a silk eiderdown on the bed. They didn’t have space on wagon walls
for art pieces, so the practical items they used in their daily lives became miniature works of art.
By the end of the 1950s most Gypsy families had changed their accommodation from horses
and wagons to motor vans and trailers. Through the 1960s a short-lived folk art was the
application of painted motifs to the door panels and bodywork of the J-type Bedford lorries
(and other motor vehicles) used to tow the trailer caravans. The lorries were given spindlesided
rails on the sides and across the back of the cab, were very flashy, all chamfered out,
painted and lined, boarded backs were panel-lined out, and loads of extra chrome, big chrome
wheel discs and a big fancy step bar was added at the back for towing a modern caravan. By
the 1970s this style of artistic expression had died out as the vehicle were highly conspicuous
and not good for business – people twigged you were a Gypsy and you didn’t get the work[G].
The motorised trailer caravan was not considered a suitable base for decoration, and enforced
sedentarisation on sites after the 1968 Caravan Act led to a revival of interest in expressing
Gypsy identity through horse-drawn carts and wagons. Ownership of such vehicles was seen
by Gypsy families as an important symbol of their identity, with wagons transported to fairs on
low-loaders as showpieces. A new generation of wagon painters, builders and restorers
emerged (a number from Gypsy families) to make new carts and wagons that replicated earlier
designs, as the surviving vehicles were a finite resource. They have ensured high standards of
craftsmanship even where the wagon is a symbolic artefact for display purposes. There has
65
also been an upsurge of interest by young Gypsies in learning the skills needed to restore and
paint wagons and carts.
The past decade has seen a sudden emergence of contemporary Roma visual art. For
centuries, visual art about the lives of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers has existed in which they have
been the passive subjects. Much writing, painting and music relating to Roma in Europe had
been produced by 1900 by non-Gypsy artists. These tended to represent Roma art as folk art.
By the twentieth century individual Roma writers and artists began to emerge but it is in the
last decade that Roma visual art has really made a public appearance.
In 2006 the London International Gypsy Film Festival was an international celebration of
Romany culture, community and identity, as represented within the moving image. Dozens of
features, documentaries and short films presented an argument against all the stereotypes,
prejudice and often overt hostility displayed towards the Roma people over centuries. The film
festival uncovered a number of artists with Gypsy backgrounds, and it was decided that an
exhibition of work should be organised.
This was held in 2006 at Greenwich University by four artists from GRT backgrounds. The
Second Site exhibition included work by Daniel Baker[G], Ferdinand Koci[G], Damian Le Bas[G]
and Delaine Le Bas[G]. All four are professionally trained and have created careers without
trading on ‘being a Gypsy’ – the exhibition was about whatever in the world concerned four
artists who happened to be Gypsies. However, the commonality of their experience meant that
even though their styles were different, their common history did intervene. The exhibition led
to engagement with schools, an Arts Council of England grant to tour England, a precedent for
the first GRT History Month, and three of the four artists taking part in the first Roma Pavilion
at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
The ‘new Romani arts movement’ is about deconstructing the stereotypes that have built up
over centuries. At the same time as Romani ‘revisionist’ history is putting the Roma back into
European history, Roma artists ‘are striving not to be typical, to be challenging stereotypes and
presenting new typifications of their experience’ (Acton, 2011). Gypsy visual artists borrow
themes, motifs and tropes across boundaries to make sense of their own situations and Roma
art has two broad cultural matrices which provide the basis for contemporary GRT artists
engaging with the international art market: (i) Renaissance neo-classicism transmitted via
‘Socialist Realism’ and married up with folklorism in Eastern Europe; (ii) New Romani Art draws
on contemporary west European modern art of the twentieth century.
Daniel Baker[G] in his 2011 thesis on Gypsy Visuality formulates a theory based on the
identification of key elements within Gypsy visual arts, crafts and décor. The research
highlights the social significance of Gypsy visual culture and argues its potential impact upon
Romany/non-Romany social relations. Daniel has established some significant recurrent
elements that constitute Gypsy visuality for the first time. These elements are: flashiness, allure,
enchantment, entrapment, ornament, diversion, discordance, contingency, functionality,
performance, community, family, home, traditional skills, wildlife, countryside and gender. He
proposes that the constituent elements of Gypsy visuality both reflect and inform Gypsy
culture. His 2011 PhD thesis from the Royal College of Art – Gypsy Visuality: Gell’s ‘Art Nexus’
and its potential for artists – is available on his website: www.danielbaker.net
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In April 2011 the first permanent gallery of Roma art was established in Berlin. Galerie Kai
Dikhas (the ‘place of seeing’ in Romani) is a gallery for contemporary art of the Roma and Sinti
that shows constantly changing exhibitions or Roma artists from all over the world. A Berlinbased
independent music label, Asphalt Tango, specialises in music of Roma from the Balkans,
as well as rock, psychedelic folk and electronic from Eastern Europe and the music of Roma
and Sinti worldwide is also promoted at the gallery.
The international exhibition of Roma contemporary art continued in the second Roma Pavilion
at the 54th Venice Biennale 2011. This included a special event, Call the Witness, which
presented live ‘testimonies’, works of art, performances, talks, and conversations by and with
artists, thinkers, and politicians to consider the situation of the Roma and Roma art.
The event included an extensive line-up of eminent speakers and full information can be found
at www.callthewitness.org.
Back in Wales, the first GRT National Symposium 2012 included the workshop ‘How can we
engage the GRT community through the Arts?’ led by Isaac Blake[G] and Dr. Thomas Acton[GW].
In an interview given during the Symposium, Isaac Blake[G] said, Having grown up on a site I
know exactly what artistically barren places they can be, so what I really wanted to do was to
take my passion for theatre and dance and give the kids there the opportunity to try things they
normally wouldn’t … And it’s fantastic to see youngsters coming alive creatively and also
identifying themselves as being Gypsies and Travellers.
The conclusions of the workshop were:
Younger GRT community members are willing to take part in art, dance, music and
drama workshops. Shirenewton site has hosted dance, drama, animation, circus, visual
art, multimedia, singing, songwriting and music sessions.
Facilities at Rover Way site are more limited, so members have to travel to Shirenewton
to take part.
Older GRT members want a trade, and are not so willing to participate in activities that
don’t lead to employment skills.
There are specific cultural barriers to engagement for GRT communities (outlined
elsewhere in this document).
European Roma are unwilling to self-identify as such, making it difficult to involve them
in arts activities.
The emergence of Gypsy artists in different art forms is producing role models for
young GRT members.*
The Arts are more inclusive than sport – there is a more diverse range of options and
they can relate to culture and heritage.
Arts activities that are well received include music (traditional to the GRT community),
literature (in the form of storytelling), visual arts.
When producing artwork, GRT members are encouraged because it is the finished
artwork being judged, not themselves, which helps with issues of self-esteem.
The process of learning in an art workshop is underpinned by physical and numerical
theory (whether realised or subliminally), so knowledge is expanded generally.
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*Role models are an important impetus for GRT children. Some of the most well known include:
Yul Brynner, Sir Charles Chaplin, Sir Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Elvis Presley, David Essex, Mother Teresa,
John Bunyan (preacher), Django Reinhardt, Gipsy Kings, Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones), Albert Lee (Eric Clapton’s
band), Adam Ant, Denny Laine (Moody Blues, Wings), Pablo Picasso, Bill Clinton (Scottish Travellers), Johnny Cash.
Comments on the efficacy of arts projects in GRT communities
Some of these comments are general, some refer to England, and some refer to projects in
Wales. In some cases the comments from different people contradict each other.
When Gypsies and Travellers have been herded together by a local authority onto a
site, it means that when an educational or arts project takes place, children of both
groups are in the class. This means that Travellers are obliged to learn about Romany
Gypsy history (which is not their heritage), or Gypsies have to learn about Traveller
history (which is not their culture). As it’s difficult to separate the groups due to the
nature of local authority provision, each group has to tolerate learning about the other.
This can lead to frustration and friction.
[G]
The two groups identify with one another, even if it’s not their own heritage they’re
learning about. [GW]
Communities are very suspicious of arts projects being parachuted in to a site, without
pre-planning or knowledge of GRT identities. We had a theatre company turn up on a
site once with non-Gypsy actors and no idea of how to engage with the community.[G]
Arts organisations are dependent on public funding, which is not a concept that GRT
communities understand. Gypsies and Travellers are untrained artists and crafts people
with no idea of how to access funding. When a project comes on site the community
just gets the crumbs from the loaf, it benefits the artists, not the community.[G]
GRT communities are used again and again by researchers and artists to further their
own careers and nothing positive happens for the GRT – just another do-gooder doing
their thing on the back of Travellers.
[GW]
I like working with the GRT kids because they’re alive and interesting. The historical
aspect that we cover is unique to Wales. They can see these people in the nineteenth
century had higher status because of their music.[GW]
The kids like Teleri – she’s flamboyant and identifies with them.[GW]
I’ve been to Shirenewton and Pontypool – it’s difficult until they trust you – but the
teachers who work with the kids are marvellous. [Teleri Gray[G]]
Isaac Blake works hard, he’s genuine, he fits in with the GRT community and the
multicultural groups. He works well with everyone and I would endorse anything he
says.[G]
Eldra’s book on the Welsh Gypsies is great, but very academic. We need a Mickey
Mouse version of the book to use with the children.[G]
The animations made with Cinetig are great but non-Gypsy children need to be
educated a bit more. We need funding to do another animation, but it should be done
with non-GRT children – raising awareness that G’s have a history and it’s interesting.[G]
Cinetig [now Gritty Realism Productions] – Our main aim with The Travelling Harpists
was to introduce it to young people not familiar with the story. The Gypsy Ways film
focused on the Irish experience in Rover Way.[GW]
Kids definitely learnt about animation through the projects. One kid missing from
Monkton school for weeks reappeared when the animation classes on the
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Pembrokeshire National Park started. He disappeared afterwards then turned up again
when the animation classes on the Auschwitz project began.[GW]
We’ve worked a few times with the same group so we were able to take the work
further with each session. We also arranged the possibility of OCN accreditation – this
didn’t work out on this occasion, but the kids focused when they heard of the
possibility of a certificate.[GW]
Arts projects need to be from the grassroots up and defined by the community. Isaac
Blake made the leap to gain education outside the community, but he’s brought it back
in.[GW]
It’s not the same as telling your own story – there are lots of talented GRT people.
[G]
Many parents see arts projects as having no practical outcomes. If they can see a
practical or economic outcome the children are more likely to take up the sessions, as
family pressure is to earn a living.[GW]
Preserving Gypsy heritage is a private undertaking, and even most Romany museums
are owned and run by Gypsies themselves. And their oral and family history is
beginning to be recorded. There are great Gypsy artists at the grassroots level,
including some now using the written word very effectively.[G]
We are starting to see a digital divide between generations. GRT youth are now very IT
literate, very good on smartphones, but they’re used for social networking and
entertainment rather than learning. Most have good online access.[G]
Since cold calling has been banned it would be great for Gypsies and Travellers to be
involved in traditional crafts again. There is some woodcraft going on, but
metalworking has almost disappeared completely. We need to re-boot traditional
methods of income generation.[G]
Scrap collecting has led to some sculpture working in metal, which got the men
involved. That worked quite well.[GW]
One Gypsy has started retraining as an artist blacksmith in order to revive the
traditional crafts of his community.[G]
Teaching of traditional crafts by elder Gypsies to the younger ones works well.[GW]
We got the girls involved in a fashion show which led to sessions in college. That
worked until they were needed back at the trailer.[GW]
Boys tend to spend their time hunting, with lurchers, fighting cocks, riding horses from
the age of three, boxing, martial arts. Projects will need to appeal to these.[GW]
There needs to be some research with Gypsies and Travellers, aimed at older and
young people, into how much of the traditional arts and crafts survive, and what needs
to be done to develop them as an economic option again.GW]
The Arson Rap Project organised by the South Wales Fire & Rescue Service was very
successful as the kids were able to participate in an activity they may not normally be
able to do. Over eight weeks they took part in graffiti, ceramics, T-shirt design and
writing rap songs, as well as experiencing fire kit, using a hose and seeing how
firefighters use the equipment from the fire engine. Given the potential for fire
breakouts on sites, this was seen as a useful activity.[GW]
There should be a Gypsy encampment set up in the Welsh Folk Museum, with a vardo,
rod tents and fire pots. And an interactive tourist booklet, with Welsh Gypsy music by
Robin Huw Bowen.[G]
The Travelling Ahead project run by Save the Children has a GRT youth forum across
Wales. This forum has asked for a film to be made to counteract the stereotyping in Big
69
Fat Gypsy Weddings. Gritty Realism Productions has started work on this, with a
working title of Big Fat Gypsy Stereotypes.
[G]
Research is needed at ground level into what is really going on in the GRT community,
and what can really be done through the Arts. There needs to be a balance between
interfering and redirecting.[GW]
The profile of the Arts Council needs to be raised within the community and it should
be open to applications without trying to direct what is wanted. There is a lack of
Gypsies and Travellers coming forward, but this has to be balanced against their
choosing to be separate.[GW]
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sources: Ingram[G](2012); Smith[NG](1997); Acton (2006); various interviewees (2012)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romen_Theatre Romen Theatre, Moscow
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Gypsies.aspx
http://www.romanytheatrecompany.com/ Romany Theatre Company, Cambridge
http://www.atchingtan.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/posts/Atching-Tan-A-Gypsy-Wife
http;//www.callthewitness.org Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2011
http://www.danielbaker.net/ Daniel Baker, artist
http://www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/English/safety/sci/Pages/CSI_ArsonRap.aspx
11.0 ARTS COUNCIL of WALES-FUNDED PROJECTS
This is an overview of projects funded by the Arts Council of Wales in the past ten years that
either involve GRT groups, are run by a GRT community member, or involve GRT communities
as the subject of the project.
YEAR ORGANISATION PROJECT GRANT REF.
2002-03 Bridgend County
Council
A six-month project involving drama, music
and dance aimed at addressing the needs and
aspirations of three communities in the county
borough of Bridgend; the Romany Community
of Pyle, the Catholic Community of Maesteg
and the Asian Communities of Pencoed and
Bridgend.
£5,020.00 20021392
2002-03 Cinetig Cinetig proposes to make five short animation
films (3-5 minutes in length) with different
groups across Wales. One film is the
Shipwrecks Project, Monkton, Pembrokeshire
– working with 11-16-year-old Traveller
children at Priory Comp School. A key aim of
Cinetig is to create films that reflect the
diversity and complexity of modern Wales
through the eyes of different groups.
£48,000.00 20021605
2003-04 CADMAD A thirty-week photography project working
with the three main Romany groups in Cardiff.
Run by Andrée Morgan Andrews[G].
£4,684.00 20030277
70
2004-05 Cinetig The Travelling Harpist is a project about the
history of Gypsy culture and traditions in
Wales. It was carried out with young Travellers
and pupils from Bynea County primary School
and Monkton Priory Community Primary
School. The project resulted in an animated
film telling the story of the Wood Gypsy family
who, in the past, brought their music and way
of life to Wales, and a documentary about the
making of the film. The aim of the project was
for young Travellers to celebrate Romany
culture in Wales through working with
professional film-makers.
£30,000.00 20040336
2004-05 Bridgend County
Council
A Romany Story short film project engaging a
group of Romany Gypsies as participants
working alongside a professional director.
£5,000.00 20040828
2005-06 Access All Areas The Jaipur Kawa Brass Band, an authentic 10-
piece Gypsy brass band from Rajasthan in
northern India, will be touring in Europe from
June to October 2005 with appearances at
festivals, melas, carnivals, clubs, arts centres,
theatres, schools and street events. The tour
will visit a number of locations in Wales.
£4,853.00 20050501
2005-06 Edward Jay The Devil's Violin is a unique storytelling show
based predominantly on Welsh Gypsy tales
with live Gypsy music. The show, which targets
older children and adults, is to tour Welsh
venues in Autumn 2006. Arts Council England
is also being asked to fund rehearsals and a
tour to secondary schools in Summer 2006.
£4,995.00 20051429
2006-07 Access All Areas The Jaipur Kawa Brass Band, an authentic 10-
piece Gypsy brass band from Rajasthan,
northern India, will visit Wales during their
2006 European tour, with appearances at
festivals, carnivals, arts centres, theatres,
schools and street events.
£4,475.00 20060410
2007-08 Tina Carr This project is a collaboration between two
artists: Tina Carr and Anne Marie Schöne, to
create a new body of work – The River is My
Looking Glass – using large format
photography and a video installation
documentary practice. Both artists will be
documenting the lives of Romany communities
in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to promote
the effective exercise of human rights and
fundamental freedoms of the Roma
communities and to advance a greater
understanding of the issues of racism and
social exclusion by the Roma people.
£15,000.00 20070135
71
2007-08 Women’s Arts
Association
Postcards from Home is a 12-month
community arts project based in Cardiff which
will give four female community groups the
opportunity to work with professional artists to
create multi-media postcards in response to
their local environment. Participants will
include groups drawn from the Yemeni Centre
in Butetown; an elderly group from the
Salvation Army Centre in Ely; Cardiff's Traveller
Education Service and Disability Arts Cymru.
£26,376.00 20070436
2008-09 Isaac Blake[G] Isaac Blake seeks funding to attend a 2-week
intensive training course in Graham technique
at the Martha Graham School in New York.
£1,770.00 20080606
2008-09 Tina Carr Roma Europe – support to undertake a
research project into the Roma Collection in
Hungary, to establish contacts and meet with
minority groups for future collaboration.
£1,000.00
IOF
20080752
2009 Trac Y Fedle Fawr is a year-long project of six
distinct elements aimed at opening doors to
the traditional musics of Wales – encouraging
more people of all ages to take part in
traditional music and learn about its place in
the cultural life of the nation. It includes a
project working with a Romany community on
the Pembrokeshire Varda Project in
partnership with the local authority, which
focused on the contribution of the Gypsies to
the safeguarding of traditional Welsh music,
particularly the harp. Working with the
Monkton School Gypsy Unit, Welsh musicians
and Czech Roma activist/singer Ida Kelarova
reunited young Gypsies with aspects of their
heritage unfamiliar to them.
£26,815.00 20080370
2009 Community Music
Wales
Community Music Wales worked with Gypsy
and Traveller communities to produce a piece
of music based on Gypsy culture. Workshops
explored Gypsy and Traveller customs and
traditions in order to facilitate the creation of
lyrics that represent the Gypsy way of life.
Young workshop participants had a chance to
explore a range of musical styles and develop
their interests, as well as gain OCN
accreditation. Using the music produced, two
videos were created; one by participants from
the Rover Way site and the other by Shire
Newton site residents, to represent their
respective communities. The videos were
shown at a presentation and awards evening
and again as part of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
History Month 2009. The project was
commissioned by the Cardiff Gypsy and
Traveller Project.
Annual
revenue
20090166
72
2009-10 Isaac Blake[G] To put together a new piece of work called
Lavior (Words) using dancer Michael Williams,
singer Phillippa Reeves and musician Stacey
Blythe. The project will use movement, dance,
music and the Romani language to explore
Romani culture. Isaac will direct the piece,
which will present two performances at The
Riverfront, Newport.
£4,867.00 20090860
2009-10 Ethnic Minorities
Communities
Team
The project aims to celebrate and promote
Gypsy/Roma/Traveller traditions and culture
and to challenge ignorance and prejudice,
thereby enhancing community cohesion. The
programme includes a series of workshops led
by NoFit State, Cinetig and the GRT
community, leading up to GRT History Month.
A poster competition in primary schools will
also help raise the profile of the event. The
programme will culminate in a one-day event
of showcases and performances at the
Pierhead Building.
£4,093.00 20090939
2010 Head 4 Arts As part of Reach the Heights, six sessions on
Romani arts and songwriting were held with
Nantyglo Travellers’ Group, followed by a
performance. Four sessions on songwriting,
Romani culture and artwork were held with
Torfaen Travellers’ Group, and a further four
sessions were held with the same group on
songwriting, digital stories, and painting, with
self-employment in view as an outcome.
Reach the
Heights
20090361
2010 Chapter Gallery exhibition by Romany artist Delaine Le
Bas[G]. Witch Hunt explores many of the
experiences of intolerance, misrepresentation,
transitional displacement and homelessness
that the community continues to face. Witch
Hunt is a multimedia project comprising
installation, performance and new music,
exploring the role of language in identifying
the ‘other’.
Annual
revenue
20090951
2010 Tina Carr Tina Carr and Anne Marie Schöne worked with
the Roma Parliament & Open Society Institute,
Budapest for six weeks on their Once We
Were Birds Project: Defending and Advocating
the Dignity, Culture and Human Rights of the
Roma People in Hungary. Including an
exhibition at the János Balázs Gallery, Budapest
and continuation of their work with Roma
community groups in Budapest and north-east
Hungary.
£3,000.00
IOF
20100058
73
2010-11 NoFit State Circus A double-pronged, 12-month project to
coincide with NoFit State's move to the new
John Street studio comprising: Weekly
participatory workshops with the Traveller
community in Tremorfa and young people
from Butetown; Development of the Cardiff
Youth Circus with more targeted age groups
and more specialised skills provision.
£30,000.00 20100239
2010-11 Tina Carr An application to produce a new body of
photographic and audio-visual work centred
on the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller communities
in Wales during the period May 2011 to May
2012. Ffotogallery is a project partner.
£20,000.00 20100457
2011-12 Romani Cultural
Arts Company
A visual arts installation piece by Romani artist
Delaine Le Bas[G], commissioned by the Romani
Cultural Arts Company in collaboration with
Chapter. Pots ‘n’ Pans: a Cardiff Gypsy and
Traveller Way of Life.
£5,000.00 20110374
2012 Head for Arts Facilitating workshops for Brynmawr Travellers’
Group to produce artwork for a Travellers’
festival in 2012. The project was paid for by the
Travellers, with facilitation by Head for Arts
within their annual revenue funding.
Annual
revenue
20120139
From this analysis of grants made, it seems that no application for funding of a GRT-related
project has been turned down by the Arts Council of Wales in the past ten years. The projects
funded can be divided into three types:
(i) Those where Gypsies/Roma/Travellers have requested grant aid or other assistance.
(ii) Those where GRT communities have participated in the project and have gained some
direct benefit – experience, knowledge or accreditation.
(iii) Those where Gypsies/Roma/Travellers are the subject of the project but derive no
direct benefit.
The following projects have not been funded directly by the Arts Council of Wales, but are
included because of their taking place in Wales and/or with GRT communities.
2006-11 South Wales Fire
& Rescue Service
Young people aged between 11 and 18 in
counties across south Wales took part in the
‘Arson Rap Project’, a South Wales Fire and
Rescue initiative, with the aim of reducing
instances of arson, hoax calls, anti-social
behaviour and car crime in south Wales.
The project also developed key skills with the
young people, including confidence building,
communication skills, improving team building
skills, reading and writing skills and motivation.
The young people also wrote and recorded a
rap track to discourage others from
committing crime in their area. The project was
not aimed specifically at GRT communities, but
young GRT members took part.
Not ACWfunded
74
2009 WNO MAX Equal Voices
Working with young Travellers and Gypsies
from the Equal Project based at West
Monmouth School in Pontypool, Torfaen,
exploring their perceptions and experiences of
life in the valleys today and helping them
capture their thoughts and words and turn
them into songs.
From April to June 2009 WNO MAX will work
with two separate groups of girls and boys,
bringing in writer Karen Hayes (Songs For Our
Age; Merman King) and composer Stacey
Blythe (Valley of Hope; Bay Women Singing) to
introduce the young people to song writing
and music. Once the songs have been
developed they will be brought to life by
Soprano Sian Cameron (Singing Club) and
Baritone Mark Evans (Songbus).
To provide them with an additional creative
platform to celebrate their voices and
experiences, artist Louise Carey will help them
take their words and turn them into a range of
public art sculptures, using a variety of
materials. The sculptures will form part of a
permanent art trail at Pontypool's local
community farm where one of the
performances of the Equal Voices songs will
take place. The songs will also be performed at
the school, as well as on one of the Travelling
sites to allow fellow pupils, parents and family
to experience the work that the young people
have created. A live recording of one of the
performances will be produced as a CD for
those involved to keep.
Annual
revenue
and Paul
Hamlyn
Foundation
20090216
2011 Small World
Theatre
Khančeske – You are Welcome – Mai Croeso
i chi
A two-day celebration of Romani and Traveller
people and their culture taking place in west
Wales.
Day 1 – Politics and Culture – including
presentations and discussions with members
of the local communities, artists, academics
and politicians. A rare performance by Teleri
Gray and Robin Hugh Bowen of storytelling
accompanied by the triple harp.
Day 2 – Exhibitions, Workshops, Romany Food
and Hungarian Ceilidh – including the opening
of a new photographic exhibition by Romani
photographer Andrea Annamária Duka and the
UK launch of the Roma Media Archive
Not ACWfunded
75
www.romamediaarchive.net. Painting and
dance workshops. Traditional Romany food,
cooked by 'Hungry Dragon' over a stick fire,
followed by a wildly energetic Hungarian
Ceilidh with the Jani Lang Band.
2011 Tina Carr & AnneMarie
Schöne
The Once We Were Birds project was selected
for Call the Witness, Media Archive at the
2nd Roma Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2011.
The selection was made from an open,
international submission in Macedonia during
2010. The curators stated: 'We are interested in
your participation particularly because of the
great artistic and research merits of your work
and its relevance for the Roma communities as
a kind of transnational and transversal index
and resource of references, communication
and knowledge production.'
It is the purpose of the Once We Were
Birds project to highlight the significance of
Roma culture all over the world and to
continue working with Roma communities
both at home in Wales and the UK as well as
internationally.
The 2nd Roma Pavilion is sponsored by the
Open Society Institute, New York as the Roma,
although international, are stateless.
ACW
production
grant and
IOF grant
(see above)
20070135
20100058
12.0 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Clearly, until basic issues relating to accommodation and health are resolved, arts activity for
GRT communities could be seen as an optional luxury. However, as Wales is relatively
advanced in its dealing with these issues, and many different agencies are involved, there is an
opportunity for the Arts to capitalise on the lead provided by the Welsh Government, Isaac
Blake, the Travellers Aid Trust, Tim Wilson and the local authority Gypsy Liaison Officers.
Without basic civil and human rights guaranteed, it is impossible for GRT communities to
maintain a balanced economic position and there is a clear interest and demand from GRT
communities for gaining education and skills that relate to generating income. This chimes
with the need for non-Gypsy artists generally to improve their income-generating activities in
the face of reduced public funding.
However, GRT communities want (and need) any intervention to relate to their own situation
and to fit their own culture – not simply to replicate the host culture’s ideas of how things
should be done. There is a great opportunity for the Arts Council of Wales, because of the
advances already made in the country, to demonstrate that it is looking beyond the
stereotypes – through its understanding of how the different Traveller groups are composed
76
and the issues that affect them – to those issues that can best be addressed by considered
provision of grant funding for arts and crafts activities. It is possible to tease apart those
elements of GRT culture and heritage that relate to arts and crafts activity and which could be
grant-aided accordingly. Through an understanding of the various issues that affect GRT
communities it should be possible to capitalise on the explosion of interest in Roma art in the
past decade and to focus on those arts or crafts activities that could become incomegenerating
and which would directly benefit GRT communities.
Just through this review the following have been highlighted as areas of interest to GRT
communities, and with focused research others could emerge: Music; Dance; Storytelling;
production of audiobooks; Woodcraft; Carpentry; Woodcarving; Wagon and cart restoration;
Painting & Decorating; Wheelwright work; Blacksmithing – including art smithing; Tinsmithing;
Other metal crafts – gold/silver/jewellery-making; Basket-making; Roofing – thatching as well
as slate; Sewing; General handicrafts; Lace-making; separating scrap into metals useful for arts,
crafts and sculpture; Romani language books for children.
Such an informed and proactive approach would also provide an opportunity to move beyond
the stereotype of arts funding: Is this a BME box-ticking exercise, or a project that will genuinely
aid the GRT community in some way?[G] With cold calling prohibited and many site licences not
allowing Gypsies and Travellers to carry on a business on site, alternatives must be found. ‘Rebooting’
traditional arts and crafts (and encouraging contemporary Roma art developments)
through Arts Council funding would (a) meet the aims and objectives of the Arts Council; (b)
assist in meeting the needs of GRT communities; (c) provide an opportunity for future
measurement of analysis of the economic impact of Gypsy and Traveller services in the local
economy.
The Travellers Aid Trust in Carmarthen is the only independent UK-wide grant making
organisation that specialises in providing grants to Gypsies and Travellers. Its expertise would
be invaluable to the Arts Council and their Administrator has made the following observations
with regard to grant making to GRT communities:
GRT communities are generally ignorant about how funding works.
Capacity development within the community is needed.
Gypsies and Travellers willingly give up their time for someone else’s benefit [referring
to researchers and unrequested projects], and they hope something will change. They
are then disappointed when nothing comes of it.
Gypsies and Travellers are not applying for grants – why not? Grants seem inaccessible.
An organisation needs to think out of the box for its funding to have a real impact.
There are diff parameters with GRT funding – monitoring needs to be slightly different,
for example.
In England there are 30-40 community-led GRT groups which act as a channel for GRT
groups to access things – these don’t exist in Wales.
The Travellers Aid Trust can accept a grant on behalf of a group and facilitate it for
them.
Another factor is that Travellers can often tell you what you want to hear rather than
what they want or need. This is not meant as a deception but is a mechanism for self
preservation that has emerged out of years of persecution. Breaking through this can be
77
very difficult and requires a relationship of trust to build up between grant makers and
the Gypsies and Travellers concerned. It is therefore not a case of simply imparting skills,
but finding a way to engage Travellers into the grant making process without it
compromising those elements of their culture that make them who they are.
The Appendix (p.93) provides more information on the Travellers Aid Trust, its information for
grant makers, information on improving take-up of grants programmes, information on
difficulties for grant makers supporting Travellers, and improving support for Traveller
beneficiaries.
Recommendation 1: Forge a proactive relationship with the Travellers Aid Trust (TAT) and
correlate Arts Council grant-making procedures with the guidelines
provided by TAT for funding Gypsies and Travellers. This is a Welshbased
organisation that operates cross the UK and specialises in GRT
funding. It has extensive accumulated expertise.
Recommendation 2: Team up with the Romani Cultural & Arts Company in addition to
providing project funding. This review has uncovered nothing but
praise for Isaac Blake – his work is universally acknowledged by
academics, Gypsies, Travellers, politicians, public bodies and
international organisations. This is a unique Welsh-based company
that should be supported in every possible way.
Recommendation 3: Liaise regularly with the Cardiff Gypsy & Traveller Project and with
other Gypsy Liaison officers in Wales, particularly for access to GRT
communities without inadvertently giving offence.
Recommendation 4: Improve knowledge across all Arts Council of Wales staff. This is a list
of suggestions made by interviewees during this review:
Officers need to know why differences between Gypsies, Roma and
Travellers exist, and what those differences are.[GW]
Officers need to be able to distinguish between different travelling
groups.[G]
A general awareness of Gypsy and Travellers’ culture and history is
needed.[GW]
A thorough understanding of the concept of mochadi is needed.[G]
Capitals ‘G’, ‘R’ and ’T’ should always be used for Gypsies, Roma and
Travellers.[GW]
Avoid using ‘Gypsy-Traveller’ as shorthand for the two separate
racial groups of Gypsies and Travellers. Use Gypsies and Roma and
Travellers.[GW]
There should be a separate GRT tickbox on grant application
forms.[G]
Step Up Cymru is a policies training initiative of the Welsh
Government. Is shadowing or mentoring within the Arts Council of
Wales possible for members of the GRT community?[G]
78
Check that projects funded by the Arts Council are not perpetuating
or reinforcing stereotypes.[GW]
Work with those already working with Gypsies and Travellers in
Wales, Welsh media and representatives of the Gypsy and Traveller
communities, to identify ways to improve the quality of media
reporting of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales, to reduce the level of
prejudice and discrimination.[GW]
True equality is treating everyone the same, with no divisions. BME
policies create a ‘them and us’ situation whereas it needs to be an
‘all different, all equal’ situation.[G]
Check that funding decisions are made on an informed basis, not a
‘box-ticking’ basis.[G]
Before setting up a project, the project organisers need to know the
Gypsies or Travellers they will be working with.[G]
Draw on the expertise of people who already act as advocates, who
can help identify the best mechanisms to consult with Gypsies and
Travellers to avoid misunderstandings or raised expectations.[GW]
Whilst some Gypsies and Travellers undoubtedly want the benefit of education, including arts
education, that the majority society can offer, most want it without the obligation to
`integrate'. The migrations and perpetual travelling have stopped, and the threads crisscrossing
Europe are now political, social and academic. At a time when the growing trend in
Western economies is towards downsizing, flexitime, small business units, `hot-desking' and
self-employment the GRT style of work is closer than ever to matching the trends in the host
society. In a period of general economic crisis and mass unemployment small trades are
making a comeback. New working structures, greater mobility, and advances in technology
should all contribute to a greater tolerance of such traditionally flexible workers and the Arts
Council of Wales has a better than ever opportunity to contribute to these flexible methods
modes of working through aligning them, in the GRT community, with the Arts.
79
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES
SUPERSCRIPT[G] = GYPSY/TRAVELLER,
[NG] = NON-GYPSY,
[GW]= GRT WORKER
Dr. Thomas Acton, OBE [GW] Emeritus Professor of Romani Studies, University of Greenwich.
Ph.D. in Sociology of Gypsies. Involved in setting up the World
Romany Congress, Gypsy Council, Encyclopaedia Commission,
Romanestan Publications. Author of many books and articles on
Roma. Patron of the Roma Support Group, Secretary of the
Gypsy Lore Society.
Susan Alexander[GW] Trust Administrator for the Travellers Aid Trust, the only
independent grant-maker dedicated specifically to supporting
Gypsies and Travellers in the UK, based in Carmarthen.
Andrée Morgan Andrews[G] Gypsy Liaison Officer at Powys County Council. From a Romany
Gypsy background, she is actively involved in liaison between
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers and the wider community within
the county of Powys.
Isaac Blake[G] Director of the Romani Cultural & Arts Company, based in
Cardiff. Working through the arts the Company raises funds to
take community development and educational projects onto
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller sites and into non-GRT and ‘countryfolk’
communities across Wales. A trained contemporary dancer,
he also teaches dance and movement at the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama.
Robin Huw Bowen[NG] The leading exponent today of the Welsh triple harp. He learnt
to play the simple Celtic harp at school, and was taught the
Welsh triple harp in Gypsy style by Eldra Jarman (greatgranddaughter
of John Roberts, Telynor Cymru. He performs as
a soloist and with a number of Welsh folk groups. In 2004 he
and four other triple harpists formed a Welsh triple harp ‘choir’.
He researches and publishes Welsh tunes and arrangements for
the harp.
Jake Bowers[G] A self-made journalist born to a Romanichal family with 17
siblings. He works to highlight and celebrate the massive
contribution made by the long-established Romani minority. In
2003 he set up the Gypsy Media Company, with the aim of
raising the profile of a much maligned community, and the
company produces the Travellers’ Times magazine. He has
worked for BBC television and radio, for the Guardian, the
Independent and many other publications. He launched the very
first Romani radio programme Rokker Radio on the BBC.
80
Gerald Conn[GW] Managing director of Gritty Realism Productions, an awardwinning
animator and filmmaker with over twenty years of
experience whose films have been broadcast on Channel 4 and
BBC and shown at numerous international festivals. Has taught
animation and produced films with a number of Gypsy and
Traveller schools in Wales (also with his previous company
Cinetig).
Claire Dickson[GW] Officer at Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Project.
Meredydd Evans[NG] A leading expert and musicologist specialising in the folk music
of Wales. A collector, editor, historian and performer of folk
music in the Welsh language who has helped to preserve Wales’
musical legacy. Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC 1963-73.
A senior figure in the Welsh Language Society.
Teleri Jarman Gray[G] Descendant of Abram Wood's family in Wales. Daughter of
Eldra[G] and Professor A. O. H. Jarman (joint authors of many
books and articles on Gypsies in Wales, including The Welsh
Gypsies, 1991). Works with schools and young people as a
storyteller of Romani and Welsh Gypsy history.
Peter Ingram[G] Owner of the Romany Folklore Museum in Selborne and
renowned specialist builder, restorer and painter of Gypsy
caravans and artefacts with over fifty years of experience. Maker
of craft products such as pegs, flowers, baskets, etc. Expert in
Romani history and storytelling; gives talks and craft
demonstrations on Romani culture and heritage in schools. TV
and radio programme consultant.
Hannah Jenkins[NG] Director of Community Music Wales.
Delaine Le Bas[G] A British artist of Romany background. Her art has been shown
extensively in the UK and internationally.
Sam Lee[G] Sam Lee is folk singer, promoter and animateur on a journey into
the old songs of The British Isles. His band Sam Lee and Friends
uses unconventional and contemporary arrangements that
challenge preconceptions of what ʻtraditional folkʼ should sound
like. He plays many innovative concerts across London, festival
stages around the UK and radio and television appearances. His
musical training came via the legendary, late Scottish Traveller
Stanley Robertson – last of the great ballad singers. Sam has also
spent time researching and documenting the music and stories
of the Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities.
81
Katie Morgan[GW] Katie is a painter and restorer, based in the Cotswolds. She
paints Gypsy wagons, fairground showfronts and narrowboats in
the traditional ways using techniques such as woodgraining,
marbling, lining and murals. She teaches traditional painting to
Gypsies and Travellers in educational workshops and classes.
Blanche Rowen[NG] Administrator of trac, the folk development organisation for
Wales.
Kate Strudwick[NG] Creative Project Manager, Head for Arts. Provides a programme
of arts activities in the Heads of the Valleys area, south Wales.
Tim Wilson[GW] Director, Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Project (CGTP). Has worked
with Gypsy and Traveller families for over 35 years. CGTP was set
up in 1981 to provide a link between the Gypsy and Traveller
communities, the Council, and the wider community. The Project
aims to support and enable Gypsies and Travellers to achieve a
high and sustainable quality of life, within their own culture,
through improving access to suitable accommodation, public
services and employment skills.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
ACTON, Thomas Gypsy Politics and Social Change, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
London (1974)
ACTON, T. & Grace (eds.) Second Site, art exhibition brochure, Advisory Council for the
Education of Romany and other Travellers, London (2006)
ACTON, T. & KENRICK, D. Romani Rokkeripen To-divvus, Romanestan Publications,
London (1984)
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WEBSITES & LINKS
World artists’ initiative against Romaphobia
http://artists-for-roma-net.ning.com/
Asphalt Tango – Gypsy and Eastern music label
http://www.asphalt-tango.de/
‘Atching Tan’ BBC radio drama series
http://www.atchingtan.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/posts/Atching-Tan-A-Gypsy-Wife
BBC article ‘Pontypool Race Gypsy site extension proposed by Torfaen’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-19018379
BBC article ‘Gypsy Wedding ‘stereotype’ challenged’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-18524178
Gypsy culture is much more than dresses and make-up
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/gypsy-culture-is-much-more-than-dresses-and-make-up/
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National Assembly Committee Seminar on Service Provision for Gypsies and Travellers
http://www.assemblywales.org/N0000000000000000000000000009105.pdf
Gypsy Travellers: A Policing Strategy, Inspector Ian Taggart LLB, Grampian Police
http://www.bemis.org.uk/resources/gt/scotland/home%20office%20-%20gypsy%20travellers%20-
%20a%20policing%20strategy-UK.pdf
Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale
www.callthewitness.org
Cardiff Traveller Education Service
http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=2869,3047,3049,3073,3932&parent_directory_id=2865&id=7
741&d1p1=1
EU Roma Communities in Cardiff
http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=2%2C2867%2C3591%2C2907%2C4979%2C4980
Cardiff Housing – Gypsy and Traveller accommodation
http://www.cardiffhousing.co.uk/index.php?section=accommodation&option=gypsy_traveller
Article on Romani Culture and Traditions
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/american-gypsies/romani-culture-and-traditions/
Communities and Local Government Essential Guide to the Decentralisation and Localism Bill
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/decentralisationguide
Cardiff Romany Gypsy facing jail for homophobic abuse
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186095/Jayne-Collins-Woman-claiming-Romany-gypsyprincess-facing-jail-homophobic-abuse-Cardiff.html
Gypsy wins right to live in a caravan
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187354/Gypsy-wins-right-live-caravan-saying-good-nightssleep-home.html
Gypsy schoolgirl wins Oxford place
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189845/Gypsy-schoolgirl-works-seafront-amusement-arcadewins-place-study-English-Literature-Oxford-University.html
‘Travellers invade playing fields’ article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189796/Travellers-invade-playing-fields-30-000-yearMarlborough-College-Kate-Middleton-played-hockey.html
Website of Daniel Baker[G], Gypsy artist
http://www.danielbaker.net/
Article on the Traveller Law Research Unit at Cardiff University
http://digitaljournalist.eu/OnTheRoad/traveller-law-research-unit/
Wikipedia entry on Dale Farm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Farm
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Wikipedia entry on Gypsy artist Damien le Bas[G]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Le_Bas
Wikipedia entry on Gypsy artist Delaine le Bas[G]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaine_Le_Bas
Fictional representations of Romanies in literature and film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_representations_of_Romani_people
Equality and Human Rights Commission
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
Gritty Realism Productions
http://grittyrealism.co.uk
GRT History Month
http://grthm.natt.org.uk/timeline.php
Information on Gypsy artist Ferdinand Koci[G]
http://www.grtleeds.co.uk/Culture/ferdinand.html
Guardian article ‘The truth about Gypsies’ (24 March 2000)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/mar/24/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices
Guardian article ‘End of the road for Gypsy stereotypes’ (02 April 2008)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/02/4
Guardian article ‘Dale Farm Travellers hope UN official’s visit will end their plight’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/23/dale-farm-travellers-un-visit?intcmp=239
Guardian article ‘Gypsies and Travellers look for more political clout’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jul/25/discrimination-at-work-roma-gypsies-andtravellers-caravans-voting-franchise?newsfeed=true
Guardian article ‘Political suicide: housing Gypsy and Traveller communities’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2012/jul/16/local-politics-housing-gypsies-and-travellers
Guardian article ‘Traveller pitch funding of £47m is announced by government’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/07/traveller-pitch-funding-announcedgovernment?intcmp=239
Guardian article ‘Safe space online for real ‘chavs’’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/30/communities.socialnetworking
Friends Families and Travellers – protects the rights of Gypsies and Travellers to pursue a nomadic way
of life
http://www.gypsy-traveller.org/
Sándor[G],‘Comparison of Romany Law with Israelite Law and Indo-Aryan Traditions’
http://www.imninalu.net/Roma.htm;
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Galerie Kai Dikhas – contemporary Roma art gallery in Berlin
http://www.kaidikhas.de/en/gallery
Website of Katie B. Morgan, Fairground and Gypsy-style artist
http://www.kbmorgan.co.uk/index.html
Traveller Law Research Unit – The Traveller Law Reform Bill
http://www.law.cf.ac.uk/tlru/bill.html
The National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups
http://www.nationalgypsytravellerfederation.org/index.html
National Association of Teachers of Travellers
http://www.natt.org.uk/
New Statesman article ‘The gypsies who lost their homes to make way for the Olympics’
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/07/gypsies-who-lost-their-homes-make-wayolympics
Bridget Deadman[G] article
http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/07/31/big-fat-gypsy-lies/
Communities and Local Government Select Committee inquiry into the abolition of regional strategies
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/communities-andlocal-government-committee/inquiries/spatial-strategies/
Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the
Regions, Thirteenth Report
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmodpm/633/63306.htm
Royal College of Nursing, Gypsy & Traveller Communities
http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/social_inclusion/gypsy_and_traveller_communities
Roma Routes – EU project celebrating Roma culture and history
www.romaroutes.eu
Romani Cultural and Arts Company[G]
http://romaniarts.co.uk/
Romani Language Project Manchester University
http://www.romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk
International Romani Writers’ Association
http://www.romaniwriters.com/
Romany Theatre Company[G]
http://www.romanytheatrecompany.com/
Social network for young Gypsies and Travellers online
http://www.savvychavvy.com/
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Arson Rap project run by South Wales Fire Service
http://www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/English/safety/sci/Pages/CSI_ArsonRap.aspx
Website of Robin Huw Bowen
http://www.teires.com/
The Devil’s Violin storytelling and music group
www.thedevilsviolin.co.uk
Site listing common Gypsy stereotypes
http://thegypsychronicles.net/gypsystereotypes-aspx/
Travellers Got Talent article
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3597046/Gypsies-flock-to-TV-talent-show-TravellersGot-TalentBari-Radt.html
Travellers Aid Trust - Grants for Gypsies & Travellers experiencing exceptional hardship
http://www.travellersaidtrust.org/
A Big or Divided Society? Final Recommendations and Report of the Panel Review into the Coalition
Government Policy on Gypsies and Travellers
http://www.travellersaidtrust.org/big_or_divided_society.pdf
Save the Children’s Travelling Ahead project
www.travellingahead.org.uk
Traveller Law Reform Project
http://www.travellerslaw.org.uk/index.htm
Travellers’ Times magazine[G]
http://www.travellerstimes.org.uk
Gypsies and Travellers: Their lifestyle, history and culture
http://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/downloads/lifestyle_history_and_culture_24052010111520.pdf
Romany Wales Project
http://www.valleystream.co.uk/romhome.htm
Guidance on Managing Unauthorised Camping, WAG (2005)
http://wales.gov.uk/dsjlg/publications/localgov/guidecamping/guidee.pdf?lang=en
Accommodation Needs of Gypsy-Travellers in Wales, Report to WAG, Pat Niner, University of
Birmingham (2006)
http://wales.gov.uk/dsjlg/research/accomneedsgypsy/researche.pdf?lang=en
Good Practice Guide in Designing Gypsy Traveller Sites in Wales, WAG (2009)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/comm/091112gpgdesigningen.pdf
Good Practice Guide in Managing Gypsy Traveller Sites in Wales, WAG (2009)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/comm/091112gpgmanagingen.pdf
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‘Travelling to a Better Future’: Gypsy and Traveller Framework for Action and Delivery Plan
Welsh Government (2012)
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/equality/110928gypsytravelleren.pdf
Article on Gypsy History Month in Wales
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2012/06/16/history-month-challengesthe-stereotype-of-gypsies-in-wales-91466-31186099/
Welsh Folk Museum Handbook 1968
http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1073091/llgc-id:1081601/llgcid:1081875/getText
Decade of Roman Inclusion 2005-2015
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_of_Roma_Inclusion
Wales Migration Partnership
http://www.wmp.org.uk
Cadbury’s Flake TV advert (1982)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIQgunHHiY
Cardiff Gypsy & Traveller Project
114 Clifton Street, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 1LW
Tel: 029 2021 4411, Email admincgtp@btconnect.com
Gypsy-Traveller Team
Welsh Assembly Government, Merthyr Tydfil Office, Rhydycar, CF48 1UZ
Tel: 01685 729210
Gypsy-Traveller Site Liaison Officers
Powys: Andrée Morgan Andrews
Andree.morganandrews@powys.gov.uk
Gwynedd: Bethan Wyn Jones
bethanwynjones@gwynedd.gov.uk
Torfaen: Nolan Nicklin
Tel: 01495 742303, Nolan.Nicklin@torfaen.gov.uk
Site Manager for Shirenewton and Rover Way sites, Cardiff: Tony Melhuish
Tel: 0292 0791694, a.melhuish@cardiff.gov.uk
93
APPENDIX
Travellers Aid Trust – Information for Grant Makers
The Travellers Aid Trust has a section of its website designed for use by grant makers which
can be found at http://travellersaidtrust.org/grant-makers/ This section of the website and
much of the information on it came about as a result of the work the Trust has been doing
with other grant makers to try to identify and address some of the difficulties that can be
encountered by both grant maker and applicant when supporting and working with the Gypsy
and Traveller community. The site includes links to the following useful documents:
Grant Makers’ Guide to supporting Gypsies and Travellers
Grant Makers’ Fact Sheet
Conference Report on exploring ways to achieve more informed and effective grant
making
Gypsies and Travellers Grant Makers’ Resource Sheet
Below is a short overview of some of the guidelines contained in the above documents.
Improving take-up of grants programmes
Due to the long history of discrimination experienced by this community, Travellers are very
wary about openly asking for help from anyone. This is compounded by low literacy levels and
a sense of pride at not being seen as ignorant, uneducated or needing charity. There are four
factors that will make all the difference for Travellers wishing to apply for funding from grant
makers. These are:
1. An acknowledgement within grant guidelines that Travellers fall within the beneficiary
group. Only a very small number of grant makers actually state that they will consider
applications from Travellers. Although Travellers may well fall into the general
beneficiary group of a grant maker, unless this is explicitly stated, Travellers will assume
their applications will not be welcomed.
2. A contact within a grant making organisation whom they can talk directly to. Only a
limited number of Travellers are fully literate or have access to the internet so dealing
with complex guidelines and on line forms can be very intimidating. Having someone
who will take the time to speak to them helps to break down the mistrust and
apprehensions Travellers naturally feel when approaching someone or something that
is unfamiliar.
3. The option to submit an application through a DVD, audio CD or over the phone.
Travellers can find it very difficult to effectively express what they want and need on a
piece of paper. Coming from a strong oral tradition, they need to be able to tell their
story and a 5-minute conversation or film can often put across a far stronger and
clearer message than 5 pages of written information.
4. A visit by grant makers to projects or community groups to see first hand the work that
is being done. This is particularly relevant for grant makers who feel that there is
94
potential merit in an initial application but insufficient or unclear information to back it
up. Traveller applicants can often fail to provide the kind of statistical and
organisational information that many grant makers require simply because they do not
understand its relevance and have failed to collect it. A visit to a project or community
group will often provide grant makers with a wealth of information that the applicants
failed to provide or were unable to articulate on paper.
Common difficulties for Grant Makers supporting Travellers
There are a number of issues that can arise when assessing application forms or monitoring
grants to Travellers. These come about primarily as a result of a failure to supply sufficient
supporting documentation when applying or reporting back to grant makers. We believe that
this is due to a general lack of capacity within groups. However, there is another factor which
has more to do with Traveller culture as opposed to organisational competence. Grant makers
expect Travellers to be accountable to them, whereas Travellers see themselves as primarily
accountable to their communities.
1. Monitoring and evaluation – very few Gypsy and Traveller community-led groups, like
much of the community sector, carry out proper monitoring and evaluation. This is due
in large part to a failure to understand the relevance and importance of this exercise
along with a lack of experience in how to carry it out effectively. For Travellers, the
indicator of their success is how their work affects their community and this is their
primary concern. Many groups find the various requirements entailed in reporting back
to grant makers as a distraction from the hard and important work they are doing.
They will often say that if you want to know how your money has been spent, come
and see for yourself! There is also the issue of privacy. Travellers can often confuse a
request for data on the work they are doing with a request for detailed personal
information about the community they are helping. Due to a history of ethnic
cleansing, Travellers are inherently wary of any data collected on them and are
reluctant to gather it from their own community for the benefit of an ‘outsider’.
2. Accounts and annual reports – as with monitoring and evaluation, many Traveller
groups do not see the relevance of keeping detailed accounts or producing glossy
reports. What matters is the work they do on the ground. Travellers can be fiercely
proud and can mistakenly take offence when accounts are requested or questioned.
This is not because of any attempt to misappropriate funds, but due to a lack of
familiarity with the requirements of servicing a grant. Rather than risk any question of
their integrity, some groups will send every single original receipt and invoice in to
account for their expenditure.
3. Internal politics – as with many minority communities, factions and rivalries also affect
the Traveller community. This can be very damaging for the community as grant
makers become unsure of who they are supporting and whether the work they have
funded or are considering supporting has the support of the community it is intended
to benefit.
95
Improving support for Traveller beneficiaries
It is not always possible to overcome all of the difficulties that have been identified in this
guide, but there are a number of approaches that grant makers can take which can help. These
are:
1. Monitoring and Evaluation – during our research, Travellers stated that grant makers
needed to be much clearer from the beginning what exactly was expected back from
groups at the end of the grant period and why. Many community groups struggle to
understand ’funding jargon’ and Travellers are not exception. This may mean a
conversation via the phone or at a meeting with the beneficiary group clarifying and
agreeing with them what kind of information is expected back and how they might go
about collecting this. Requesting a basic interim report or carrying out a phone
interview half way through the grant period can also help to make sure the beneficiary
is still clear about what is expected and to help identify any problems they may be
experiencing early on.
2. Annual reports and accounts – again, Travellers requested greater clarity at the
beginning of the grant period about what was expected at the end of the grant period
and in what format. If grant makers require annual reports and independently
examined accounts along with a end of grant report, they need to be sure that the
group actually has the capacity to deliver this and if not (which is often the case),
consider helping the group by providing training or by identify other agencies that can
help them meet these requirements. Travellers will often say that they can meet a
requirement but do not in fact have any experience or additional resources to achieve
it. If they are a new group or have no record of providing these documents, the
assumption should be that they will need support in delivering this.
3. Internal politics – There is a well established network of Gypsy and Traveller community
groups and national voluntary organisations working with and for Travellers. Although
many of the groups within this network have differing views on certain issues, most of
them manage to work in a co-operative manner with one another. As many grant
makers will know from experience of working with other minority ethnic communities,
one of the easiest ways in which to gauge a group’s capacity to work through the
political factions that can exist is to request examples of its working relationship with
other groups and agencies.
A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Beyond the Stereotypes: A review of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers and the Arts in Wales -Yvonne Cheal August 2012. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése
A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Beyond the Stereotypes: A review of Gypsies/Roma/Travellers and the Arts in Wales -Yvonne Cheal August 2012. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése
2016. március 27., vasárnap
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