Blood and belonging – Traveller writers
The glory of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller community lies in its diversity – its amorphous, shape-shifting nature – despite the attempt by the gorjer/gadje or non-Romany world to define that community. The Traveller writers of this edition are guides to its kaleidoscopic journey.
Edited by: Louise Doughty
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Blood and belonging
Louise Doughty
"The gorjers (non-Romanys) that various family members married were tolerated, even loved; but there was family, and there was blood-family."
Louise Doughty, author of Fires in the Dark and Apple Tree Yard, on her research into her Romany family history and a memorable visit to her Auntie Flo.
Writing spells danger!
Richard O’Neill
"Things written about our culture were not written by us. When I read aloud for my relatives from books or newspapers, I would edit out what I thought was negative, hurtful, wrong or alarming."
Richard O'Neill on his evolution as an author with a Romani heritage and his hope of inspiring future Romani writers.
I belong to both worlds
Raine Geoghegan
"Our house was very different from my friends' homes, they seemed to have a more orderly and quiet routine, whereas ours was often chaotic and loud."
Raine Geoghegan, a poet of Romany, Welsh and Irish ethnicity and author of The Talking Stick: O Pookering Kosh, remembers her early childhood after the death of her father.
Chicken blood
Jo Clement
"The last owner hanged himself in the ducket. Left a week's worth of pigeon feed out. He looks out the webby window now and then. A face flicker. Too many of us lost this way."
A lyric essay by poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Northumbria Uni Jo Clement, placing her Traveller ethnicity in Northeast England.
Reporting for Romanistan
Jake Bowers
"Somewhere in darkest Dorset we ran out of stopping places and water, and it was getting dark. I knocked on a farm door…"
Romani journalist, producer and film maker Jake Bowers recommends films and videos that he admires about travellers.
Our blood
Damian Le Bas
"This talk of blood, whether Travellers know it or not, is metaphorical. A child does not ‘have’ anyone’s blood but its own."
Damian Le Bas, author of The Stopping Places: A Journey through Gypsy Britain, meditates on 'Traveller blood' and kinship.
Objects of love
Rosaleen McDonagh
"My journey is to bear witness, tell the testimony, and interpret the debris of our universal eradication."
Rosaleen McDonagh on her devastating visit to the Nazi death camp at Bernburg, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany in 2022.