Category: ACERT

Between March and July 2023, there is a vacancy for a freelance Project Associate, to write and design an accessible guide to the digitised online collections of Gypsy and Traveller music at the The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) . The resource should be aimed at Gypsy and Traveller users but will be accessible to anyone via the library website.

 VWML is collaborating with researchers from the University of East Anglia and the University of Sheffield to curate and develop awareness about the library’s collections of Gypsy and Traveller songs and music.

The Gypsy and Traveller collections held by the library consist mainly of private collections that have been given to the library; most relate to Romani Gypsies but there is also material relating to Irish and Scottish Travellers. Many have been digitised and are available on line but the library collections also include written and audio publications with Gypsy and Traveller songs and music that can be seen in the library and collections in other places.

There is currently no single register of Gypsy and Traveller material in the collections and some inside knowledge is required to find the right entries.

The Project Associate will write and design an accessible resource to the digitised online collections at the library. The resource should be aimed at Gypsy and Traveller users but will be accessible to anyone via the library website. Lived experience of, and/or deep connections with, Gypsy and/or Traveller culture and a passion for community access to culture and heritage collections are listed among the essential experience of applicants.

The project “Gypsy and Traveller Voices in UK Music Archives” is led by Dr Hazel Marsh (University of East Anglia) together with Dr Esbjorn Wettermark (University of Sheffield) and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, London (English Folk Dance and Song Society). The aim of the project is to create resources that make the Gypsy and Traveller collections more accessible, particularly for Gypsy and Traveller people seeking engagement with their cultural heritage. Through collaboration we will highlight the richness and importance of Gypsy and Traveller music collections for communities themselves and the wider English folk scene.

We are pleased to announce that we have at last been able to secure a new date for the ACERT annual conference previously scheduled for September 16th 2022.

Add to Calendar

Storytelling, Education & Wellbeing

Friday, 3 February 2023
10:00 – 16:00

John Lennon Art and Design Building (JLADB Space),
Duckinfield Street,
Liverpool, L3 5RD

We will circulate the programme and booking details shortly but we hope you will save the date today.

While it’s great to have national newspapers and cabinet ministers speaking in support of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, it has taken the lowest form of humour from Jimmy Carr to achieve it.

‘When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.’

Jimmy Carr – His Dark Materials

Bluntly put, he’s saying, “I find it funny that over half a million Roma and Sinti died or were exterminated.” That’s it; that’s the joke. He makes a very comfortable living from that quality of material. He had a previous effort using the olfactory sense of the Gypsy Moth. Edgy? No, clumsy.

Carr’s hate speech was even too much for Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who previously claimed ‘left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy’. She said is was ‘abhorrent’ and ‘just shouldn’t be on television’.

Zarah Sultana who has consistently supported Gypsy, Roma and Traveller rights and the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, and for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity have called on Netflix to remove the hate material.

Jimmy Carr's "joke" – that a "positive" of the Holocaust was the slaughter of 500,000 Gypsy, Roma and Siniti people – is disgusting beyond words. Mocking racist genocide has no place in comedy or a decent society.

I call on @netflix to remove this grotesque material.

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 4, 2022

Together with the @GenocideAPPG & 126 parliamentarians, we’ve written to @NetflixUK calling on them to remove Jimmy Carr’s race hate material against Roma people. Netflix’s approval and funding of this material legitimises and perpetuates discrimination and racism. pic.twitter.com/bgWRA4NcS1

— APPG for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma (@APPGGTR) February 9, 2022

The Traveller Movement has started a petition also calling on Netflix to remove the offensive material with a target of 25,000 signatures.

I've just signed "The Holocaust is Not a Laughing Matter" – Will you support the campaign too? https://t.co/2hUsC0DWxc @GypsyTravellerM @action_storm

— ACERT (@ACERT_UK) February 4, 2022

Please share this as widely as you can so everyone who finds can make their views known.

Robin Marriot, the son of George and Mary Marriot, contacted ACERT to share the story of how John and Yoko Lennon supported a caravan school on a roadside camp in Bedfordshire.

I came across your report concerning the above schools. My Dad, George Marriott, a disabled WW2 veteran, and my Mum, Mary, herself disabled, although not Gypsies themselves, were heavily involved in Gypsy Welfare in Bedfordshire from the mid 1960s until the 1980s, due to the inhumane way in which Gypsy people were being treated throughout the county.

As you know, at that time, with no permanent sites for Gypsy families, it was impossible for their children to receive even a basic education and my Dad had the idea to take education to the children via roadside caravan schools. 
But how to fund them? I was 19 years old at the time and a Beatles fan. I was aware that John & Yoko Lennon were involved in a number of projects outside of making music so I suggested that my Dad should write to them and ask for financial help to start up the caravan school project.

Some time later, out of the blue, on 1 December 1969, a telegram was delivered saying, “We are behind your project. Will send money immediately. Love John & Yoko.”

A cheque for £100 duly arrived and my Dad negotiated the purchase of a second hand 32 foot long caravan that would be sited on the roadside close to the M1 bridge on the Caddington to Luton Road. Local press covered the story which was picked up by the nationals. 

Much to my Dad’s embarrassment The Daily Mirror incorrectly reported that the Lennons had donated £1,000 so he immediately contacted them (John & Yoko) to alert the to the incorrect report.

A few days later a letter arrived from John & Yoko with a cheque for £300 and a “PS” saying, “Use it well, but don’t tell!”. With the additional funding a second caravan was bought that Mr Gerwyn Davies, a supporter of the cause over many years, allowed to be sited at his school in Kensworth. 

Unfortunately the Caddington school was burnt and destroyed by so called “vigilantes” or brainless idiots as my Dad referred to them. 
I remember well Gratton Puxon and Tom Acton and their involvement, as well as Jeremy Sandford the author of Cathy Come Home and Yehudi Menuhin the violinist. 

I was  pleased to hear that Gerwyn and Mrs Davies are still with us. My Dad was a great admirer of him and the way he embraced “The Cause” in spite of the unpopularity of the project among local residents. 

As a footnote, when my Dad died in 1996 the Luton News and Dunstable Gazette (they referring to him as the “Gypsy Champion”) reported the event. To our surprise a number of Gypsies attended the funeral, some of them were by this time adults who had attended the schools and been taught to read and write !

With kind regards,
Robin Marriott