Rare snapshot of life inside Roma community
COVENTRY’S Roma community has been part of the city for generations, with the first settlers arriving in the UK as early as the 16th century.
People can sometimes talk about Roma, Gypsy and Travellers as if they are a single group, with one identity, but each group is different, with distinct cultural practices and customs.
Coventry is home to a thriving Roma community, and these rare pictures give a fascinating insight into their rich and diverse way of life.
June is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, so we spoke with a member of the community to gain an insight into why this proud, hesitant group has decided to let the cameras in.
Coventry’s Generations exhibition came about through a partnership with the Belgrade Theatre, local photographer Anthony Weir, local academic Rosa Cisneros and the Roma project.
The exhibition is a remarkable achievement, gaining the trust of a community and sharing their experiences of living and working in Coventry.
Children can be seen joking about and generations of one family stand proudly, smartly dressed, smiling straight at the camera.
The photos capture an intimate, playful side of this community, which came about as a result of years of community work and research from Coventry University academic Rosemary Cisneros.
We started by asking her to explain the difference between Roma, Gypsy and Travellers. Rosemary, a member of the community herself, said: “Roma is the umbrella term that was adopted in a 1970s conference held in London.
“Gypsy is a term that has a negative connotation and is interchangeable with Roma. Roma is the politically correct term.
“Travellers and Gypsies are different.”
The Roma people, like the families pictured in this exhibition, originally come from India. When they started moving around, people saw their darker complexions and mistook them for Egyptians, which is where the term Gypsy actually comes from.
Of course since, the Roma people today are spread across the world having moved around for generations.
Coventry and Warwickshire is home to a cross-section of the GRT community, there are Irish travellers and there are also Roma people.
There are also Romanian migrants too, but as Rosemary explained, Romanians are separate to the GRT community. “Romanian is a term to describe someone from Romania but it does not mean Roma or Gypsy.”
The term Traveller as we know it was given to Irish Travellers by the settled society because of their nomadic traditions. Coventry’s Roma project was set up in 2010 to meet the needs and challenges faced by this group of people.
Their website shows Covid19 guidance in their native language and they have a drop-in centre in the city for people requiring legal support and welfare guidance. They also have a women’s group and run English classes, working hard to push for social inclusion.
A Government inquiry found that the Traveller, Gypsy, and Roma communities are widely considered to be among the most socially excluded communities in the UK. They have a much lower life expectancy than the general population, and fall short in areas like education and health.
There are also organisations that support the Roma and Traveller community as a whole, providing toolkits and resources for them. This is the second exhibition that has taken place in Coventry on the Roma community, the first one was in 2015 and went on to appear at the Roma Women’s Congress in Barcelona in 2018.
If you’re a member of Coventry’s Roma or Travelling community, we would love to hear your experiences. You can contact our community reporter Naomi on: naomi. desouza@reachplc.com.
You can find out more about the Roma community by: Accessing the Belgrade’s online Generations exhibition: www.belgrade.co.uk/ stories/generations-online
Following the Gypsy Traveller Movement: @Gypsytravellerm
Following The Travellers’ Times: www.travellerstimes.org.uk
Watching this short film on their history: https://youtu.BE/Q6WSLFGBVGY