Windsor Housing manage a Gypsy Romany Traveller site in Datchet, East Berkshire which currently accommodates over 16 families and also house a significant number of settled GRT in ‘bricks and mortar’ homes. Windsor has worked with young members of East Berkshire’s GRT community to give a rare insight into their culture and way of life to promote acceptance within the wider community.
Youngsters from the GRT families were taught how to conduct and record radio interviews in a youth GRT project managed and lead by Windsor Housing’s Community Development Team. This culminated in the recording of a broadcast which has already featured in an exhibition about GRT culture and youth identity at the Fire Station Arts Centre, Windsor.
Windsor Housing manage a Gypsy Romany Traveller site in Datchet, East Berkshire which currently accommodates over 16 families and also house a significant number of settled GRT in ‘bricks and mortar’ homes. Windsor has worked with young members of East Berkshire’s GRT community to give a rare insight into their culture and way of life to promote acceptance within the wider community.
Youngsters from the GRT families were taught how to conduct and record radio interviews in a youth GRT project managed and lead by Windsor Housing’s Community Development Team. This culminated in the recording of a broadcast which has already featured in an exhibition about GRT culture and youth identity at the Fire Station Arts Centre, Windsor.
The intergenerational interview in which a young member of the Traveller community interviews her father, to discover more about her heritage, contains fascinating information such as how to cook a hedgehog and why the GRT would burn a caravan full of belongings’ is available to listen to on this page.
In the interview, the father explains how he completed his schooling without ever learning to read or write, the GRT’s unerring respect for their upbringing and why a dog is not a pet. He also regales how his father, John, got the nickname ‘Jack’; “He was so strong they reckon he could pick up the back of a wagon so they could change the wheel when it broke.”
The intriguing interviewee also dispels the myths surrounding how a hedgehog tastes; “There are two different flavours of an hedgehog, all depends on what he’s been eating. One tastes like pork, one tastes like beef.” He also exposes first hand experience of prejudices that are still held against the GRT community; “As I’m the supervisor they give me the keys to the site. Not knowing I’m a Gypsy they’re telling me to lock up the gates or the travellers will be in to rob you.”
“We hope it will encourage greater community cohesion by breaking down barriers through better knowledge and understanding about this often marginalised community. It has also given the young people involved the opportunity to learn interview skills, operate radio recording equipment and add something exciting and unusual to their CV.” Rachel Bennett, Windsor Housing’s Community Development Team.