Cultural Heritage Programme
The Travellers' Cultural Heritage Centre, funded through FÁS and the European Commission's 'Culture 2000' initiative, was set up in 1990.
The aims of the programme are:
- To research and document Travellers' history, previously unrecorded, and to develop an appreciation of Travellers' cultural heritage.
- To promote Travellers' positive identity as an ethnic group and to enhance Travellers' identity and self-determination.
- To resource the traditional skills of Travellers as well as stimulate the creative development and reinterpretation of these arts.
- To improve knowledge and appreciation of Interculturalism in Ireland.
Past work
- An exhibition entitled 'Pavee Pipers': an exhibition of text and photographs documenting the Traveller contribution to traditional Irish music.
- A slide/tape show entitled 'Nomadism Now and Then', based on interviews with Travellers about their lives and travelling.
- 'Pavee Beoir': a slide/tape show based on interviews with Traveller women.
- Two publications: A Heritage Ahead; Cultural Action and Travellers - a series of articles focusing on cultural action as a strategy for the promotion of Travellers' rights; Traveller Ways, Traveller Words: a book on Traveller lifestyle, customs, cures and beliefs in the words of 17 Travellers.
- A thirty-minute documentary on Traveller culture 'Pavee Culture: Our Ways Our Voices' has been produced. It explores areas of traditional and contemporary culture looking at the oral tradition, Traveller language, music and storytelling and the distinct Traveller economy. The documentary was screened at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 2002.
Current work
An oral history unit has been established. The unit will pilot a series of initiatives in the area of ethnographic oral history collecting. An archive of recorded material of Traveller's history and life stories will be compiled and this will be accessible in Pavee Point and at a later stage on the web. It is intended that this collection will be a resource to Travellers exploring their culture as well as scholars and it will be readily adaptable for broadcasting and publication.
A new 30-minute film is in production. This docudrama depicts a traditional Traveller campsite of the 1950's and illustrates a typical day in the life of an extended Traveller family. Set at a campsite with barrel-top wagon and bender tents, it illustrates traditional Traveller activities such as tin-smithing, flower making, horse dealing and 'ceilidhing' and provides an insight into a particular way of life in the countryside that disappeared in subsequent decades.
Key Link
Culture as a Means of Combatting Social Exclusion:
www.culture-exchange.net
Contact us:
