Interactive media
LGA Annual Rural Commission and Conference 2005 for LGA TV.
- Download the video file (MOV: 8.5MB / 5.32 Minutes)
Welcome to Fenland - Gypsies and Travellers travelling through or living permanently in Fenland.
- Track One: Welcome to Fenland (MP3: 1.32MB / 2.18 Minutes)
- Track Two: Passing through (MP3: 5.19MB / 9.05 Minutes)
- Track Three: Local site residents (MP3: 14.7MB / 25.51 Minutes)
- Track Four: Future private site developments (MP3: 1.9MB / 3.19 Minutes)
- Track Five: All services available to Travellers (MP3: 7.25MB / 4.25 Minutes)
Produced and narrated by Jake Bowers of the Gypsey Media Company*
Romani Radio
Britain’s 200,000 Romani Gypsies aren’t just the country’s eldest ethnic minority, we are probably the most misunderstood and misrepresented community in the country. After 500 years in Britain, the Romani community is widely recognised as Britain’s single most marginalised ethnic group. Many of us are homeless, we suffer from the highest rates of infant mortality, the lowest life expectancy and highest rates of illiteracy of any ethnic group.
But if we are Britain’s most marginalized ethnic group, we are also it’s most voiceless. Although recognised as a separate racial group under race relations legislation, we are excluded from the census, have no representatives in parliament or media of our own. As a result, we are subjected to the kind of bias and racism in the media that no other ethnic group would tolerate.
But across Europe, where Romanies represent the continent’s largest and fastest growing ethnic minority, all that is changing. From the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean Gypsies aren’t so much taking to the road any more - as the airwaves. From Macedonia to Portugal, Romani journalists are using increasingly cheap digital technology to start radio programmes and stations where they can speak their mind and celebrate their culture. This CD is an attempt to bring that wave of change to the United Kingdom.
To change the media, you have to be the media
Romani radio is potentially a very powerful force for community development and integration. It informs Gypsies of the wrongs that are being committed against them and the rights they have to defend themselves. It helps them access services they have been denied for so long, or services they don’t know exist. Through the use of entertainment it also actively affirms Romani history and culture. But perhaps its most powerful role is to educate. Once broadcast, it educatres the wider community about Roman culture and educates and trains every Romani that works within it.
One very real reason why negative stereotypes of Gypsies still exist in the media is because there are so few Romani journalists in this country to stop them. The development of community media nurtures the story telling talents of many young gypsies and turns them into Gypsy journalists, musicians, presenters and entertainers. This CD us the beginning of a process intended to nurture those talents.
Rokkering all over the Fens
At the end of September 2005, Romani Gypsies from across England came together to take to the airwaves. After an intensive weekend learning the ropes of community radio, they produced a 50 minute live radio magazine programme. It is the first example of Romani Radio to be produced in Britain. Rokkering (talking) all over the fens is a largely speech based radio programme that provides a snapshot of Romani concerns and issues from a particular place on a particular weekend. It looks at subjects as diverse as policing and poetry.
The editorial judgements and all the contents was all made by people from the Romani community, but translated into quality radio with the help of community radio producer Karl Hartland of Cambridge’s 209 Radio. It was produced at the side of a Fen road outside the town of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in a temporary studio and newsroom onboard a Nacro Net Navigator bus.
Romani Gypsies live across the UK but are concentrated in areas where their skills have been of most use to settled society. Areas such as the Cray Valley in Kent and the Cambridgeshire Fens are home to thousands of Romani Gypsies, who live in houses, private and public caravan sites and at the side of the road. ‘Rokkering all over the Fens’ represents the voice of one of Britain’s largest Romani communities.
Welcome to Fenland - Gypsies and Travellers travelling through or living permanently in Fenland.
- Track One: Rokkering all over the Fens (MP3: 18.1MB / 52:45 Minutes)
* Fenland Council is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites