Maria McGeoghan attended the Media on the Move conference in July with BBC Outreach, the Rural Media Company and Travellers' Times magazine. She and other media industry delegates found out more about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community, working with them on informed portrayal and looking at some of the myths that have grown up over the years.
How much do we really know about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community beyond the dresses and ceremony of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, drama depictions in programmes like Call The Midwife and Peaky Blinders, and ongoing tabloid battles about ‘illegal’ encampments?
I’ve worked in journalism for well over 30 years and the honest answer is: Not much.
So when BBC Outreach organised a one-day Media on the Move conference to bring us face to face with of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community - the turnout was high. BBC staff, community groups, writers, producers and journalists came to the BBC Birmingham's Mailbox HQ to learn from a community we rarely get to meet.
Candis Nergaard translated Romany for Peaky Blinders series three
Held in partnership with Travellers’ Times, a magazine and website aimed at Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and with Rural Media, an award-winning media production charity, the tone at first was sombre.
“I’ve seen the depth of prejudice and racism Gypsy families face on a daily basis,” said Nic Millington, who runs Rural Media.
Then followed a beautiful film, The Oldest Show On The Road, by poet Damian Le Bas, editor-at-large of Travellers’ Times, outlining the proud history of his and the wider community which goes back through the centuries; a history of the slang names they have been called down the years from ‘untouchables’ to ‘animals’.
Between 1850 and 1950 was a golden age for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, but mechanisation took many of their farming jobs and they had to look further afield to find new ways of making a living.
As we covered the event on Twitter someone gently pointed out that using capital letters for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller ‘would go a long way.’
Said Damian: “If you are Irish or Inuit - you expect your identity to have a capital letter. I want to get the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community recognised as a proper ethnic group with its own history, language and culture.”
We changed it.
One of the conference delegates, PC Jim Davies of the Gypsy Roma Traveller Police Association
During a very lively series of creative sessions to debate how the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities could find new ways of telling their stories in the mainstream media the ideas flew thick and fast.
What about a soap opera? A life swap programme? A documentary about being a gay Traveller? Anything to dispel myths, build trust and represent these communities as they really are.
During a Q&A session led by the BBC’s David Jennings, Head of Region for BBC West Midlands, Damian Le Bas revealed why it is often difficult to get someone from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community to comment on a story.
“People don’t want to be racially abused on air, it’s not nice. There’s a presumption that we are all the same and we can take anything. There’s a lot of laziness. Two minutes Googling will tell you that we have our own history and our own languages. This is well documented. “
Damian’s wife Candis translated Romany for Peaky Blinders series three: “ I could get emotional about that. People like it and there was a real commitment to get it right,” he said.
One of the highlights of the day was a fantastic performance from award-winning Irish Traveller folk singer and story-teller Thomas McCarthy who thought that their ancient history as the Pavee or Walking People had been ‘totally ignored’.
“I’d like to see positives, because there is so much negativity,” he said.
Opening the conference Diane Reid, Head of BBC Outreach, said she hoped everyone would be open to new ideas and have ‘changed a bit’ by the end of the day.
I know I have.
Tweets from the conference used Twitter hashtags: #BBCOutreach and #MediaOnTheMove with BBC coverage from @BBCAcademy and Tammi Walker
BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.
