August is always a quiet month whilst most of the world, or so it seems, goes on holiday. I've taken this opportunity, given that I'm still working, to research some of the materials that we will use in our educational pack. I'm really excited about the educational pack, and the vast range of resources that we are planning to include in it: stories, poems, maps, photographs, recordings, anything, really that we think can be used to help educate people about the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community. I think this could be something extraordinarily valuable for use in schools, museums, and libraries and go a long way to breaking down barriers of misunderstanding.
And I'm getting to spend time in the British Library researching for it.
Okay, I admit it, I'm a geek and I love libraries. On Monday I was reading through books published in 1899 looking for traditional Gypsy and Romany folk tales. I've requested some even older books of poetry and folk tales for my next trip there. This is some kind of heaven for me.
Of course, I'm also hoping that some of the interviews with members of the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community happening in one the other strands of the project are going to reveal some stories and poems, too. The strong oral tradition of the community gives me a great deal of hope for this, actually. What I'd really like to be able to do is show some links between folk tales told amongst different societies. Demonstrating similarities between different groups of people is an important step towards community cohesion.
If you happen to see me on the first floor of the British Library, do come and say hi. Quietly, obviously.
- Daniela
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