Understand

It is often difficult for us to accept people who behave differently, who do not meet our norms. The strange and the unfamiliar often confuse us. We speak about equity but for many that means similarity.

Discriminatory signs and advertisements in the 1960s were partly the reason for the first race relations legislation in Britain. Forty years on, ‘No Travellers’ and ‘No Caravan-Dwellers’ signs still appear, in blatant breach of the law. The media haven’t helped either. The routine use of racist language and vicious stereotypes about Travellers and Gypsies has legitimised public prejudice and made it more difficult for local authorities, who find themselves caught between their responsibilities for planning and housing and hostile demands from members of the public to ‘move them on’.

In the public mind, Gypsies and Travellers are mainly associated with crime or rubbish. But misconceptions also abound about other aspects of Gypsy and Traveller life, such as the mistaken belief that Gypsies live on public sites rent-free, or that all Gypsies and Travellers are rovers and cannot settle down anywhere. Most people are also quite unaware that discriminatory behaviour towards Gypsies and Travellers could be unlawful.

As well as debunking the negative we need to emphasize the positives. Their influence on artistic achievements in music, story-telling, poetry, art and design and dance has been immense. Gypsies and Travellers have developed their own traditions in music, story-telling, poetry, art and design, and dance. They have helped forge such unique artistic expressions such as the art of flamenco in Southern Spain and sustain it today with their unique contribution - most of the leading exponents are Gypsy or are heavily influenced by them.

The Travelling community has always included some of the most talented musicians of any period. Most people have heard of the great guitarist Django Reinhardt, a Belgian Sinto Gypsy and one of Europe's first great Jazz musicians. In the present day Le Taraf de Haïdouks, Fanfare Ciocarlia and Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra are among the most popular orchestral performers in the world. The critically-acclaimed rock band Gogol Bordello and their frontman Eugene Hütz are fusing traditional Gypsy music with new forms for a wider audience to promote Romani rights.

In the past, many classical composers such as Debussy and Liszt were inspired by traditional Gypsy music. Now youth from the Travelling communities are starting to express their heritage through new musical forms: in the UK, artists such as Tommy Pearce and Jamal Jimenez are part of a growing Gypsy Rap movement which is taking GRT music in new directions.

The Travelling communities have influenced and enriched our culture more than most people realise.

Our thanks go to London Borough of Waltham Forest and Janette Gronfors in particularly for allowing us to use this information in support of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.