A POWERFUL STORY WAITING TO BE HOLD
Streetlife Museum, Hull
UniteLANDWORKER Winter 2023/24
More museums (*) are reaching out to the Gypsy Roma
and Traveller community to record their distinctive lives to help their
visitors and the general public at large to understand how these ethnic groups have contributed to British society –
and rural communities particularly - for centuries.
The
historical, economic and cultural contribution of Britain's 300,000 Gypsies and
Travellers is slowly becoming recognised.
When Robin
Diaper, whose work as the Curator of Maritime & Social History at Hull
Museums and Gallery involves overseeing, amongst other sites, the Streetlife
Museum of Transport became aware there were stories about the history of the
gypsy and traveller community in the city and its surrounding areas he sought
help.
“During
COVID we tried doing things remotely. There was man called John Cunningham
in the Hull Pals Battalion who had earned a Victoria Cross for his bravery
during WWI. He was a Romany gypsy. I had seen that Violet Cannon at York
Travellers Trust (YTT) had written a blog on him but as she was having a baby
at the time, she was unable to write a panel on him for the Wilberforce Museum,
which is next door”, explains Diaper, who then was able to get in touch with
Cunningham’s great nephew Charles Newland who was good enough to provide all
the necessary information for a permanent display of a powerful story that was
just waiting to be told.
“That was
great and as we had pockets of unused space at Streetlife and understood that
perhaps we were not covering the heritage of the gypsy and traveller (G&T)
community we asked Violet if she would be willing to help us develop this and
to facilitate contact with communities too,” said Diaper. “What we wanted to do
was make a permanent addition and a meaningful change”.
YTT chief
executive Cannon, who is a Romany Gypsy who spent her childhood roadside at a
time when land was not as scarce as today and legislation, which eventually
forced her family to move into a house, was less restrictive, was inspired by
what she heard to get involved.
“I felt it
would recognise the permanency of Gypsy and Travellers families in Hull where
many families have strong links to York. I have worked in the voluntary sector
from an early age and I am keen to remove the obstacles that I faced for future
generations of my community,” many of whom are no longer travelling round the
country.
Asked to
describe the situation facing today’s G&T community, Cannon said recent
research by Birmingham University exploring Islamophobia and prejudice against
Muslims found that it was exceeded by negative perceptions towards G&T.
Cannon
facilitated workshops with members of the G&T community who decided what
items would go on display to represent them. This includes a life-sized model
of a piebald horse, information boards on diverse subjects and lots of
photographs, many taken by George Norris who is strongly linked with G&T.
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In a similar
fashion to the total absence of agricultural workers in paintings from the past
this is a silent testament to a race of people that have lived here for
centuries but who have been largely drowned by deafening silence.
Cannon hopes
the exhibition will be attended by “gypsy and travellers who will feel valued
to see their culture represented. I hope that other communities attend and
learn something new, or at least open their minds a little”.
Diaper has
been heartened that Gypsies and Travellers have visited Streetlife to view the
displays on their culture and social history and “when we did a small opening
there was a couple of families who were passing through locally who came along
and expressed their pleasure afterwards.”
He is
hopeful of developing more exhibition projects with G&T. “Now that we have
gained a bit of trust, we have already had some initial interest and we have
some spaces that could accommodate temporary works.”
Diaper has
also had visitors to Streetlife, which is ostensibly a transport museum, express
their pleasure at seeing the G&T community represented.
Visitor Ian
Atherton felt it was “only right that G&T are represented in a Hull
Museum. If you want to know the true history of a place then every part has to
be represented and my dad worked as a scrap man with many gypsies.”
Atherton,
who has regularly visited Appleby Horse Fair, believes much of the negative
perceptions towards G&T are “generated by the media because once people mix
with one another they soon get along well enough.”
The
Streetlife Museum of Transport is home to over 200 years of transport history
spread across six galleries.
Situated
within Hull’s Museums Quarter, the Streetlife Museum of Transport neighbours
both Wilberforce House and the Hull & East Riding Museum which are also
free to enter.
In recent
times the Wilberforce Museum has been working with the local Black Community to
develop new galleries looking at the legacies of transatlantic slavery. A
temporary exhibition Uncovering Modern Slavery has just opened.
· * In 2022, Landworker revealed how Worcestershire
County Museum (WCM) at Hartlebury Castle was transforming the experiences of
visitors to its beautiful Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) Vardo (the Romany word
for a horse drawn gypsy caravan) collection. This followed the appointment of Vardo Project Officer of Georgie
Stevens, part Romany herself.
Members of
the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community are featured in many of the
photographs in the Gordon Shennan collection at Inverness Museum and Art
Gallery. Many museums held special events during June which is Gypsy, Roma, and
Traveller History Month. The historical, economic and cultural contribution of
Britain's 300,000 Gypsies and Travellers is slowly becoming recognised.
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