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.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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…"

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."

Objects of love

Rosaleen McDonagh

"My journey is to bear witness, tell the testimony, and interpret the debris of our universal eradication."