Here is my new short film about the heritage of Romany Gypsies!
It’s about what you can see and what you can’t: the landscape that exists only in the eyes of those with the stories passed down to them.
Written, filmed, and composed by me.
✌🏼❤️
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a presenter on Channel 4. So is David Baddiel. So is Jimmy Carr. Get them to explain to me why they think repeatedly abusing my ethnicity is fine and get some cameras in the room 🥲
I’m absolutely done in. We all try so hard to turn the tide on the way we’re treated across the world, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller. Moments like this undoes it in seconds. And the silence is deafening. Putting my phone down. Peace and love.
Because it's all fine these people bleating out a load of harmful shit for a quick buck but when would they ever actually meet a Gypsy or a Traveller to see the damage they do? I am here! We have the same job! Talk to me
@Baddiel
Working on a Gypsy and Traveller information stall at the Green Party conference and a Green Party member comes up and starts banging on about Gypsies stealing and then laughing about offending me lollll surely not here??
It is inherently racist to both tweet me your good experiences and bad experiences with people from my ethnic background. There's no debate or discussion to be had. Think about what you're indulging in by doing so. The very idea that you need to tell me either is wrong. Cheers!
This article is holocaust denial. Roma were targeted by the Germans because they were viewed as racially inferior. It was genocide. I studied and wrote about it at length on my Master's Degree. I'm also Romany. Read a book mush.
This also fosters an attitude, which I see on here from antisemites, implying Jews deny - which they don't - other victims of Nazism, in order to own the atrocity (a ridiculous idea, given the numbers). It's a form of what
@deborahlipstadt
calls softcore Holocaust denial.
The daily racism from the public is tiring, but Jimmy Carr saying to millions on Netflix that the Nazis murdering 500,000 Roma people is a ‘positive’ is, of course, utterly horrendous. Networks need to stop normalising this sort of appalling behaviour. I am beyond disgusted.
There wasn't a single mention of Roma in the BBC's new documentary about the Holocaust last night. Not even a passing comment. Great film in itself, but poor effort.
Ok, after 48 hours I've finally gone longer than five minutes without being racially abused on Twitter 🥲 Think the coast is clear! What a mad one.
Catch me hosting The Great British Dig on Channel 4 this spring! ⛏️
Just read an academic journal specifically about there not being a single Roma archaeologist. I am an archaeologist and I am Roma so there ya go, 1 of us. Party on.
My Great-Uncle Jack died today aged 100. One of the last living survivors of the Death Railway. He would never talk about it but he would, each week, make a stew out of unpeeled vegetables to reheat each day in order to not waste a single scrap of food.
Hahaha you dopey fucking twat, Romany people have been in Britain for 500 years. I can trace my family tree back to at least the 1700s. You are the absolute rot of England 🫡
This is Blackpool
A favourite holiday destination for British families for over 100 years.
Just look what's happening to this once vibrant town.
A lady on this street told me that 30 years when she moved in it was lovely. She then went in to say that the Romany community
Been thinking a lot lately about the hypocrisy in how society will envy and praise middle class people that decide to live on the road, but openly wish death upon people who are ethnic Travellers. Mad.
Diane Abbott here saying that Travellers don't experience racism. Aside from how wrong this is in the modern era, it was, for centuries, a hangable offence to be born Romani in the UK. Gypsies were sent from the UK as slaves to the colonies on the same ships as African slaves.
The news that Shane MacGowan has died has brought tears to my eyes. A true poet & artist. A stunning body of work, but Fairytale of New York remains the most beautiful song I've ever heard. The soundtrack to so many of my most cherished memories. Thank you.
This is a huge and rare win for Gypsies and Travellers.
The Police Act is the final legislative nail in eradicating Gypsy and Traveller culture from the UK.
It is cultural genocide.
Wendy Smith, the Romany woman who took it to the High Court has made a huge dent ✊
📣 NEWS: High Court issues declaration of incompatibility finding provisions in the Police Act unlawfully discriminate against Gypsies & Travellers 📣
Read on here 🔽
The issue with the idea that archaeologists are covering up alien civilisations or giants or whatever, is that if I found anything remotely interesting I would tell the world. We just find oily bricks or where a farmer has buried asbestos. I'd shout aliens from the rooftops.
Not many better examples of the level of acceptable racism towards Romany Gypsies in the UK than organising a fun community archaeology dig of an old Gypsy site & in response the local paper run a racist hit piece, a petition, and venues cancel my bookings. It is so exhausting.
I was put in a segregated class at High School consisting solely of Gypsies, Travellers, Roma and Showmen. We were told to teach ourselves for our GCSEs using a teachers textbook.
I’m 31 years old.
This was only 15 years ago.
Blows my mind when I look back at it.
I was dreading putting this out because I normally get loads of disgusting replies when I talk about Romany things.
But I haven’t had a single bad comment. Not one.
Just overwhelmingly kind responses.
It’s a bit surreal.
Thanks all.
Peace and love.
Here is my new short film about the heritage of Romany Gypsies!
It’s about what you can see and what you can’t: the landscape that exists only in the eyes of those with the stories passed down to them.
Written, filmed, and composed by me.
✌🏼❤️
Forever blown away by the difference in public acceptance between middle-class van lifers and ethnic Gypsies and Travellers. Quickest way to wind me up I think xoxo
An amazing first day on site! Surreal and proud to be at this point after so long.
The first ever archaeological excavation of a historic Romany site in Britain!!
Thoughts and prayers with all those that started an MA in Digital Archaeology two weeks ago only for Apple to announce you can do LIDAR on the next iPhone
This is an astonishingly racist tweet which is why I’m highlighting it.
Every year the Daily Mail sends in photographers before the cleaning job starts to post this same article over and over again.
One of the many reasons I don’t speak to tabloids.
👌
Gas canisters, mattresses and rubbish dumped after Appleby Horse Fair
Pi*s in S**t springs to mind as a description for gypsies travellers & Romanies. They wonder why the settled population despise them. Wherever these groups go they flout the law. Enough!
A rant about casual racism (aka things I wish I’d said at the time)
I never really used to talk about being from a Gypsy family publicly because it didn’t seem relevant to my work, but as I got older I realised it was important for visibility etc etc etc so now I do a lot more…
The end of a lovely and emotional couple of days filming with
@theAliceRoberts
!
We definitely filmed a first for Digging For Britain.
I’m so proud of this project, not just professionally but personally. It meant the world to me.
My relative Tommy Gaskin (my mum's maiden name is Gaskin) was one of the most recognised and respected builders of Vardo wagons of his time. This is one of his beautiful creations:
Discovered that a young man left the little 500 year old cottage I live in to fight in the Great War. Killed days before the second battle of Ypres, body not recovered and his name on the Menin Gate. Makes walking across the little bridge to my front feel a bit different.
Conservative MP
@EstherMcVey1
referring to Travellers as a blight on the community during
#PMQs
today is both abhorrent and entirely predictable. Such damaging and loaded rhetoric should be condemned at every opportunity.
Not content with her party demonising poor people, black people, Muslim people, people fleeing war and persecution, Tory MP Esther McVey calls travellers a "plight on our local community".
The non-profit I run that excavates historic Romany Gypsy sites to teach present-day Romany people archaeology skills could do with a few more pro archaeologists for 16th - 22nd in the New Forest!
Can pay a decent wage though accommodation is down to you, so local is better!
Got a short film I made for
@HistoricEngland
coming out on 11th July.
Created entirely by me right down to the music.
It’s about unseen Romany Gypsy heritage, from the beauty of the intangible to the hostile barricades of the countryside.
Here’s a sneak peek:
Both my parents, years apart, were mugged by people of the same ethnicity. Do I tweet that story to other people from that ethnicity? No, because I am not thick, nor am I a racist
@johnphillips185
@Baddiel
I have seen first hand the damage Gypsy Travellers do. Local Councils are quick to move these people on with Bailiffs.
So, there is good & bad in all types of people but clearly if you've not seen it then you won't know the issues caused by your fellow members of gypsy culture.
Don't be at all surprised by the news that Roma are fighting for Ukraine, by the way. We have a long history of fighting for our countries despite our countries not accepting us. My Great Great Uncle Alfred Gaskin is buried at Passchendaele.
This is my late Grandad’s old shovel he used throughout his career in tarmac. To me it’s a proper and v personal Romany Gypsy artefact I’ve held on to for years 🙂
A lot of 'the left is making it about this' and 'the right is making it about this' in regards to Diane Abbott. A lot of pundits grifting their way to a bigger platform off the back of it. Why don't you actually ask what a Gypsy or Traveller or Roma person thinks? 1/4
@johnphillips185
I didn’t know about your ethnicity until following this tweet. I don’t care but I work at service station where travellers/Romany’s/other names come in and rob us blind knowing the police won’t do anything under £100. Is this racist? Do we have to pretend they aren’t pikeys?
There is a chronic shortage of Traveller sites in the UK.
For an MP to be so blatantly whipping up racial hate and opposition to an ethnic minority needing places to live is disgraceful.
That’s a wrap on the first ever archaeological excavation of a Romany site in Britain!
It’s been an amazing and inspiring week for myself,
@stueve
, and everyone who took part, be it digging or sharing their memories.
This is just the start!
With the dig we’re looking for the remains of a compound Romany people were forced to live in from the 1920s to 1960s
But the overall goal is to:
1. Teach Romany people archaeological skills
2. Make a statement that our history is worth as much as any other
In what is the worst kept secret in showbiz, I am the new presenter of The Great British Dig. I had a fun time filming the show and I’m excited for you all to see it. It airs for 5 weeks on More4 at 9pm from 10th April ✌🏼❤️
Just to say that there’s been no apology, no repercussions, and Jimmy Carr did a live show tonight where he made light of the outrage. We don’t matter, we know it, and that’s why we fight on✌️❤️
Here Come the Gypsies advertised as a new show on Channel 5. Replace the word Gypsies with any other ethnicity. Would it get made? No. And rightly so. Pathetic.
Been speaking to the press about the importance of Romani heritage and why failure to provide a suitable new site for Brough Hill horse fair after building a motorway through the old one will be detrimental to the survival of Romani culture in Britain:
Got a load of replies like this today & this is the sort of racism that things like what I've spoken out about normalises and encourages. I've had it my whole life so I'm not arsed anymore but a big factor in why Gypsy and Traveller suicide rate is 6 times higher than average.
BTW Romany Gypsy heritage is what I’m looking at in the fields in this film: the graves, concrete, old lanes.
I don’t ’have’ Romany heritage, I am a Romany person.
Huge difference! Saying it is my heritage implies we don’t still exist as modern people.
Enjoy
Here is my new short film about the heritage of Romany Gypsies!
It’s about what you can see and what you can’t: the landscape that exists only in the eyes of those with the stories passed down to them.
Written, filmed, and composed by me.
✌🏼❤️
Gleefully telling an author your town shut down to keep their ethnicity out is in fact not a jolly little anecdote but an incredibly racist thing to do and say and I’m so bored of brushing moments like that off as people being ignorant
Decolonizing archaeology is fab but surely the amount of middle-class academics at fancy universities doing the work is going to inevitably result in the sort of privileged gatekeeping decolonizing is attempting to halt in the first place? Guys?
Been readying my digging gear for next week when
@stueve
and I undertake the first ever archaeological excavation of a historic Romany Gypsy site in Britain!
And alongside present day Romany people too!
Been a long journey to get to this point but it’s going to be great ✌🏼
Proud to say I’ve been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
A childhood spent filling pockets with stones I imagined were flint tools.
Wild to be elected to a learned society for 'significant achievement in the fields of archaeology & heritage.'
John-Henry FSA ✌🏼❤️
In an attempt to 1. Feel better 2. Break a cycle of generational alcohol problems 3. Not die by 50, I gave up drinking on New Year’s Day. Don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it up but I did just go to the pub and not drink. Not much to some but hard for me. A win. Peace and love x
June is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month.
From my Grandad’s tarmacking firm, the Great Great Uncle who died in the trenches, my mum’s obsession with country and western or my Great Grandmother the fortune teller…
I’m hugely proud to come from a Romany Gypsy Family ❤️
100 days off the sauce! Was never a consistent or constant drinker, but could never moderate how much I drank when I did.
Tried to stop completely time & time again but always caved at the sight of a beer pump.
Almost bottled it a few times on the way to 100 but didn’t 💪✊
Not to get into this again but if you believe that you are an idiot. And don't try and explain anti Gypsy racism to an actual Gypsy LOL you're just highlighting how acceptable it is to treat us with utter contempt
@johnphillips185
Carr's joke was clearly satirical and directly making the point that gypsies are often written out of the story in discussions about the Holocaust, which is a valid point to make. It was completely decontextualised in a wildy shared clip on social media.
With a historically nomadic culture, it could be assumed that tangible remains of Romani Gypsies are hard to spot.
@johnhenry185
reflects on whether Romani Gypsy history has been forgotten or overlooked.
Watch the full film on our blog ➡️
#WeAreHistoric
Romani Day. Lost most of our family photos but here’s the trailer my mum grew up in on the road. She is the little girl directly in front of the oldest woman. The others are my aunties. Peace and love.
I've done a lot of cool things in my life but nothing has made me more proud than talking about my ethnicity over the last year. So much history of strength and overcoming adversity when you're from a Traveller background
#StandUpForTravellers
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, charities & activists have been screaming out about this for MONTHS. With a day to go, people are now noticing the policing bill because it tackles protests. Gov tradition of using Travellers as scapegoats to oppress everyone going strong 👎
I really think BBC or whoever else have a duty to turn off comments on things like this. Why subject a 14 year old girl to vile racist replies? For clicks?Insanity
Hahaha why aren’t the Daily Mail raging about this like every year when the photographers get to Appleby Horse Fair before anyone’s had a chance to clean up?
A few short hours ago, there were crowds and carriages and crowns 👑 🇬🇧
Now The Mall resembles abandoned campsite after a wet weekend at Glastonbury ⛺️
#Coronation
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a presenter on Channel 4. So is David Baddiel. So is Jimmy Carr. Get them to explain to me why they think repeatedly abusing my ethnicity is fine and get some cameras in the room 🥲
We also need to talk about how Traveller has become a catch all term for Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers who both face heinous and similar racism but are very much two individual ethnicities
There's a lot of outrage at this letter but it's important to be clear about why it's so wrong: Irish, Jews and Travellers have historically been raciallised as non-white or racially inferior. 'Whiteness' is not static (and in any case many Jews and Travellers are dark skinned)
Likely far, far more than 200,000 were murdered. This is the absolute lowest possible number you could have gotten away with writing. Would expect nothing less from someone with a history of both downplaying and aiding in the suffering of Gypsies though.
200,000 Roma and Sinti were murdered in The Holocaust. They should be remembered. The way to do that, however, is *not* by not mentioning 6 million Jews
@JulieMorganLAB
It’s currently Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month! Here is my Great Great Uncle Alfred Gaskin, a Romany Gypsy. Alfred ended up in the Labour Corps and was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. He left behind three children and a wife. Alfred is buried in Belgium.
#GRTHM
At last!
The new series of The Great British Dig, which I present alongside Hugh Dennis, will air from 15th June on More4 and Channel 4.
I think you’re really going to enjoy it ✌🏼❤️
Fury's success perfectly sums up being a Gypsy or Traveller in the U.K. Ignored and not taken seriously until the height of one's achievements topples over the defensive wall. A far longer journey but a much greater destination. Peace and love.
There is not one single mention of Gypsy and Traveller accommodation in the Lib Dem’s new 66 page policy paper on tackling the housing crisis.
There is a 1500+ family waiting list for a Traveller pitch in the UK.
Nobody wins unless everybody wins 🫡
📣 BREAKING:
@LibDems
have just voted for a new housing policy, with a commitment to build 150,000 social homes per year.
#LDConf
We need all political parties to now show this level of ambition if we are serious about ending the housing emergency.
This new article highlighting the statistics of inequality and racism towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers is absolutely shocking, even to me who already knew the stats.
.
@GypsyTravellers
have created amazing materials for June's Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month.
Do check them out and use in your schools/universities/workplaces/anywhere!
Managed to get some of my mum's old stopping places onto the map ❤️
Lee Anderson is a hate-fuelled ghoul. So confidently spouting racist stereotypes about Travellers, rambling on about “true Gypsies” & boasting of installing hostile architecture to keep out ethnicities made homeless by the Government is beyond abhorrent. The rot of England.
"It's the travelling community who are just thieves and vagabonds and ruining my entire village and I'd do it again."
"I didn't have a go at Romanis."
Reform's only MP Lee Anderson stands by his anti-traveller comments on International Romani Day.
Understandably there’s no mention of Jack Cunningham’s ethnicity in this article. But, he was a proud Romani Gypsy who won the Victoria Cross in WW1. This restored footage is remarkable and filled with Romani people and dress. ✌️❤️
Two things to take from this tweet are: the horrendously racist replies and that the Labour Party has just as bad a record as any other party with regards to mistreating Romani people in Britain
Today is
#RomaGenocide
memorial day. Many are unaware that at least half a million Roma and Sinti were murdered during the Holocaust. Thinking of my people that lost their lives seven decades ago. Never forget.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act criminalised homeless Gypsies and Travellers.
While the public nodded in approval at that, the Government were using the same Act to take away your right to peaceful protest.
That’s what they do.
Can’t get over how insane it is that the UK are jailing people for half a decade for planning non-violent protest. This is so insanely authoritarian and dangerous.
It is insanity that every couple of weeks a politician wakes up and just decides to incite racial hatred on Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, two legally recognised and protected ethnic minorities, and it's just acceptable as normal
Bravery on the Barrow!
17 year old Miley Doran heroically saved a mother and daughter from drowning without hesitation. He humbly returned home quietly, not seeking any attention.
A true hero and a testament to the strength and spirit of the Irish Traveller Community.
Got an offer to study for a Masters in Human Rights. Wasn't gonna post, but also, I didn't realise how few people from Romani families attend university when I was doing my undergrad. I also chose to tour in a rock band over A-Levels, so yeah, do whatever you want basically.✌️❤️
I am a Romany Gypsy.
I’m an award winning archaeologist, published author, film producer, shipwreck discoverer. I’ve been a guest on The One Show, BBC News & 17 BBC radio shows. The university I graduated from used me in their ‘success stories’ marketing campaign.
‘Av it.