GRTs In Scotland

Roma In Scotland

Roma is often applied as an umbrella term which includes people who identify with wide ranging national, linguistic, occupational, and cultural positions. Accordingly, the Council of Europe’s general definition applies to ‘Roma, Sinti, Kale and related groups in Europe, including Travellers and the Eastern groups [Dom and Lom], and covers the wide diversity of the groups concerned, including persons who identify themselves as Gypsies’.  As a result, we can think of Roma as a term referring to a number of small diverse groups, rather than a single homogenous one.  Reliable figures on the size of migrant Romani populations in Scotland do not exist.  However, based on their 2013 ‘mapping study’, the Scottish Government suggests that between 3,804 and 4,946 Roma live in Scotland.  The majority, around 3,500, reside across a small number of streets in Govanhill, Glasgow.  Today, this area of Glasgow is widely recognised as the city’s most diverse neighbourhood, and indeed one of the most diverse neighbourhoods outside of London in the UK.  This diversity is reflected in the wide range of cultural events that our local Roma communities are often at the heart of in Govanhill; making up its colourful cultural calendar, with events initiated by Roma communities, as well as cultural celebrations steeped in heritage from the regions from which they have migrated – becoming annual fixtures in Scotland, too.

The centrepiece of these events, and the most colourful and vibrant of all, is of course, International Roma Day.  We have celebrated International Roma Day in Govanhill, Glasgow, since 2014, when Marcela Adamova, a Slovak Roma woman and founder of the migrant Roma community organisation, Romano Lav, initiated these celebrations in Scotland for the first time [which was also reported to be the first public procession of migrant Roma in the UK], and which has been celebrated every year since. International Roma Day has been celebrated internationally on 8th April since its declaration by the World Romani Congress in 1990.  The importance of the day is twofold: it is a day to celebrate Romani culture, but also a day to raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people.  Our annual celebrations in Glasgow have grown over the years and have comprised a rich cultural programme, including live music, live theatre [purposefully created for the day], traditional Romani food, and specific primary school activities, running alongside the speeches and vibrant procession which take place each year on the Saturday closest to 8th April.

For Roma culture and history to be fully recognised in Scotland we must extend beyond celebrating culture, and also struggle for rights – and against injustices and inequalities.  This involves reckoning with history.  In this respect, we underscore the importance of commemoration too, which is epitomised by the relatively recent commemoration of August 2nd in Scotland.  August 2nd is Roma Holocaust Memorial Day: a day of commemoration and resistance, which   was declared internationally 71 years after the night of 2nd/3rd August 1944, when nearly 4,000 Roma and Sinti women, men, and children were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The 2nd August 2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the Roma Holocaust.  We marked this occasion by unveiling a permanent memorial in Glasgow’s Queen’s Park Rose Garden, planted by the Roma youth team from Romano Lav.

The newest addition to the Roma cultural calendar in Scotland took place in September 2019, where Romano Lav partnered with Southside Film to host CineRoma, the first Roma film festival in the UK.  This was a three-day spectacle, with live traditional Romani music, film, and food hosted throughout an entire weekend [27th –30th September 2019].  The event was led by Romano Lav’s Roma youth team, who made up the selection committee for the film programme, created ‘living trailers’, and produced a documentary which premiered at the opening.  Romano Lav strongly believes that cinema, and the arts more generally, have a crucial role to play in challenging stereotypes and promoting Roma culture.  Thus, we hope to make CineRoma a new addition to Scotland’s Roma-focused programme of annual events, alongside other national-level developments such as the recognition and celebration of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month [text and images courtesy of Blair Biggar and Ashli Mullen, (Friends of) Romano Lav].

As with the Scottish Gypsy/Traveller community, the Roma community in Scotland has many talented artists and musicians.  Below we showcase two who regularly contribute to Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month events and celebrations.

Remus Stana

Remus is a Roma artist based in Aberdeen. He plays the electric violin, mixing styles and covering both traditional and contemporary music. Remus featured in BBC Scotland’s Emeli Sandé’s Street Symphony programme. His style and music are unique – and not to be missed. Remus was one of the headliner acts at the History Month celebratory event in Edinburgh in 2018.

Romane Cierhenia

Based in Glasgow, the all Roma dance squad Romane Cierhenia dance to traditional Roma music and are never seen without their traditional dress. They have grown in fame and are now well known across Scotland. Romane Cierhenia was a headliner act at the 2018 celebratory event.

Below we showcase a few of the well known ballad singers, authors and storytellers from the community – there are many, many more. If you want to find out more about this wealth of talent the School of Scottish Studies would be a good starting point. To demonstrate the wealth of talent and geographical spread of Scotland’s Travelling community, this year we feature two well kent community members from the North East.

Stanley Robertson

Photograph courtesy of Derek Ironside/Newsline Scotland

‘Stanley was one of Scotland’s most important cultural figures. A Traveller man from Aberdeen, he was renowned across the world for his depth of knowledge on Scottish Traveller traditions and his fantastic storytelling and singing abilities. He was well known too as an educator. He was comfortable in both community settings, leading workshops for local organisations, and lecturing at major institutions such as Harvard University. He was a celebrated performer who appeared at festivals all over the world, inspiring countless storytellers and singers in the process’ [Source: Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen].

Elphinstone Session: Stanley Robertson “Busk Busk Bonnie Lassie” | University of Aberdeen – YouTube

About the Recording

DVD Title: At the Blue Lamp

Date of Concert: 24 June 2008

Organised and emceed by Professor Ian Russell on behalf of the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen

Film edited and directed by Mark Van Hugten and produced by Sara Reith.

DVD design by Thomas A. McKean

Published after Stanley died 2009

Lizzie Higgins

Lizzie was born in the Ghaist [Ghost] Row of Aberdeen, an ancient side street which was to vanish under desperately needed slum clearance in the 1950s. Her parents were Donald [Donty] Higgins, an accomplished piper, and Jeannie Robertson, a renowned singer.

In 1953, Hamish Henderson came to record her mother for the School of Scottish Studies and although Lizzie was recorded singing with her mother at that time, she refused all invitations to perform in public as she did not wish to be seem competing with Jeannie.  It would be a further 14 years before she could be persuaded to sing in public at the Aberdeen Folk Festival.

Lizzie had a wide repertoire of songs but perhaps the most well known is her rendition of  ‘What a Voice/Blackbird’ which featured in Martyn Bennett’s album Grit and was used in the soundtrack for Danny MacAskill’s 2014 film, The Ridge.

Lizzie Higgins — What a voice, what a voice (I wish, I wish / Blackbird) – YouTube