Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine

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Lady of the Rings Lea Fossett has entertained people from Loch Ness to Shanghai in the circus. But she warns that new laws are making it difficult. She speaks to Damian Le Bas. We are travellers and we’re living in the caravans, but the huge difference from Gypsies and Irish Travellers is we are occupational travellers. We just travel when we work: if we’re not at work, we stay at home. The circus people are the smallest group I think. But as far as the children’s education goes, for us it’s the same level of importance as for everyone else. The circus parents are probably the most keen to educate their kids among travelling groups. When I started the main concern was to finish primary school, now it’s to finish secondary school. Another big difference is we travel all around the world, the circus people! You go wherever your contract is for. You can be commissioned to work all over the place. We go to America, across Europe, the Far East.

because I’m Hungarian, and they make friends with people who live in other countries. There are lots of positive things about it. They meet so many people. They start to work at a very early age: one of my children starred in the show finale at the age of one and a half. The children grow up with the work as part of the lifestyle. It is a hard life for them, but because it’s harder, they have no time to go silly. I don’t know many circus people who have gone off on drugs, or anything like that. They never have time to do things like that because they are always working and busy doing different things. There have been a lot of changes in recent years. Forty, Fifty years ago, it was mainly little family circuses. Now the circus is like an industry as well. And the changes in the law make our lives hell sometimes. You have to have a licence for everywhere you go and it’s huge amounts of money for the ground.

All three of my children speak fluent Russian, because they have worked with so many Russian artists. They speak a little Hungarian,

Whose month? Your month! The success of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month will be repeated in June 2009. But, argues Jake Bowers, it needs greater involvement from the communities it represents. Britain’s 300,000 Gypsies, Roma and Travellers own little territory, but have to endure a mountain of misunderstanding. So when a central government department decided to dedicate an entire month to educating everyone about our culture, it was embraced by most Gypsies, Roma and Travellers as a welcome breath of fresh air in the often poisonous debate as to where Gypsies, Roma and Travellers should live. But the truth is that GRTHM was not an idea or date that came from the community itself. It was started by those in Gypsy and Traveller education keen to fight the misunderstanding that blights the lives of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller youth. Those in Traveller Education Services give three reasons as to why June was chosen:

• So it could happen in school term time, when they have the ability to involve and educate as many pupils as possible • June is a month which already includes many traditional Gypsy and Traveller events such as Appleby Fair and the Epsom Derby • That traditional Gypsy and Traveller culture is often best enjoyed in the open air in the summer.

If you think about it, in this country there isn’t much family entertainment, where you know everyone can be safe. You can take your grandma to the circus and you can take a three-year-old child: it’s not like the towns HISTORY MONTH KD;Ãqyyw where there’s drunks about. It’s one of the only completely clean and safe entertainments there is for the whole family.

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This June, Gypsies and Travellers came together in partnership with those working in education. But is June really the right month to hold it in? Some would prefer to see it in April, when Roma national day is held, others are quite happy for it to remain in June. Whatever your opinion, one thing is undisputed, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have never been consulted on the date. In order to make Gypsy Roma and Traveller History Month a date everyone can unite around, the survey slip below needs you to fill it in and return it. The month with the greatest number of votes will be Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month from 2010 onwards.

GRTHM 2008 involved all the Travelling communities but was driven by Traveller Education departments. Here Romipen play whilst a group dance, during the GRTHM Arts week in June

If you’d like to organise events as part of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month in June 2009, you don’t need anyone’s permission, but please let us know so we can help to publicise it.

Complete and return this slip to: GRTHM Survey, The Gypsy Media Company Ltd., PO Box 313, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 9EW 1. How would you describe yourself? Roma

Gypsy

Irish Traveller

Show person

Romanichal

Bargee

Other (please state) ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������

2. From 2010 onwards, I think Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month should be in (if you wish suggest more than one month by numbering the boxes in order of preference): January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

3. Comments/concerns/suggestions ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

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Name: ............................................................................................................................ Address: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine

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