Resourcing and celebrating Traveller identity, culture and heritage is a central element in any strategy to counter discrimination and the exclusion and marginalisation of Travellers. Pavee Point has promoted this work since its inception and engaged in a series of activities to promote Traveller culture and identity – often incorporating arts work. This work continues and is incorporated into all our programmes.
Traveller Ethnicity
Resourcing and celebrating Traveller identity, culture and heritage is a central element in any strategy to counter discrimination and the exclusion and marginalisation of Travellers.
Irish Travellers have been documented as being part of Irish society for centuries. Travellers have a long shared history, traditions, language, culture and customs.
The distinctive Traveller identity and culture, based on a nomadic tradition, sets Travellers apart from the sedentary population or ‘settled people’.
Imogen Gunner
Traveller Ethnicity Recognised by State
The 1st March 2017 was a historic and momentous day for the Irish Traveller community and for equality in Ireland
Taoiseach’s Statement on Traveller ethnicity here.
Our Chairperson on recognition of Traveller ethnicity here.
President presented with Traveller Ethnicity pin here.
What does ethnic recognition mean for Travellers? See our leaflet.
Traveller Collection – a Collaboration
‘Traveller Collection’ was a 3-part art project in 2018 that aimed to show a way of integrating Traveller culture into mainstream museums and galleries.
Art piece from Dublin City Gallery* at Pavee Point – for One Day Only
Street Singer’ by Jerome Connor from the collection of Dublin City Gallery was exhibited at Pavee Point. This was the first time an art loan was organised between the two organisations and represents the start of a process to make representations of Traveller culture within the museum more visible.
Artist Seamus Nolan presentedva number of objects, activities, recordings and documents relating to Traveller culture. Throughout the exhibition material was digitized and made available to the public on WWW.TRAVELLERCOLLECTION.IE.
Roundtable: Representation and the archive: ‘Traveller Collection’ hosted in Pavee Point
This discussion explored questions of ownership and representation of Traveller culture and heritage. It addressed the challenges of collecting Traveller culture, the necessity to create such a collection and the importance of a Traveller collection maintained by Travellers.
Presenters Seamus Nolan, artist; Rosaleen McDonagh, Pavee Point; Dr. Eve Olney, Artist and Ethnographer; Jessica O’ Donnell, Head of Education and Community Outreach, Dublin City Gallery. Chaired by Oein de Bhairduin.
Songs and light refreshments accompanied the event.
Imogen Gunner
Background
This project seeks to open a dialogue around what an appropriate approach to integrating the narrative of Traveller culture and history into the ‘national project’ might look like.
Click on image for pdf of Traveller Collection leaflet
The project is engaging in a collaborative process of enquiry with cultural practitioners, archivists and Traveller activists in an exploration of the basic notions of representations in relation to Traveller culture and heritage.
A series of workshops and meetings with Traveller and Traveller organisations were organised throughout the country to discuss the issues involved and to seek contributions and build a programme to manage the Traveller Collection.
This is a socially engaged commission with artist Séamus Nolan, Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, CREATE, the national development agency for collaborative arts and CAPP, collaborative arts partnership programme.
Pavee Roads Home
National Heritage Award for Pavee Roads Home
Pavee Roads Home is an exploration of Traveller culture and heritage told through the lens of history and geography. It tells the story of Traveller families through the generations and on a journey from the West of Ireland to Dublin.
It was was developed by Pavee Point’s Men’s Health team, as a way of promoting a positive sense of identity and culture and was supported by The National Neighbourhood, a Dublin City Culture Company programme. In 2021 it won a National Heritage Award.
Traveller Mapping of Coolock, Dublin
Pavee Roads Home is entering a new phase of development with Maynooth Geography and TravAct in Coolock in 2021.
We are working together to document Travellers’ stories of belonging and unbelonging in North Dublin to promote an awareness and pride in Traveller identity and culture – and so promote Traveller health and well-being.
We know that maps tell us about places and show us how A is linked to B. But in this project we are creating a Community Map – this is a map that shows us Travellers’ experiences, sense of identity and emotional geography in Coolock.
Workshops
Travellers from Coolock are getting together in a series of workshops to talk about and map out places in the area that have special meaning for them – this can be in a positive way or a negative way.
These places can be particular places or types of social spaces (schools, work places, and so on). We want to understand what feelings people have in these places and where the emotions are coming from. Where do Travellers feel at home? Where do Travellers feel like they don’t belong?
Positive Identity – Positive Mental Health
In this way we will uncover more about Travellers’ lives today. Our map will be used to create discussions and to develop understanding of the Traveller experience. It will also help to affirm and validate that experience, to record it and make it available for both Travellers and non-Travellers.
Travellers experience discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion and this affects Travellers lives. This project puts a lens and a focus on the Traveller experience in an area of Dublin where Travellers are often pushed to one side and forgotten about. By reclaiming Coolock this projects promotes positive identity and contributes to positive mental health.
We’d like to thank The Irish Research Council New Foundations Grant #LoveIrishResearch for their support on this project.
A Short History of Irish Travellers
Roads from the Past, Travellers’ Times Films, 2019 (5mins43secs)
This is an animated history of Britain’s Gypsies, Roma and Irish Travellers. Irish Travellers are a recognised minority ethnic group in the UK since 2000.
The video content was based on research completed in 2019 to create a Traveller history leaflet. Cork Travellers Women’s Network (CTWN) assembled a team of three Traveller women to link with animator Hazel Hurley. They worked together virtually to develop a script, which dictated the overall content and image style.
CTWN also linked in with the Cork City Heritage Officer during this process. The team also recorded the voice over narration and the project was funded by a Community Heritage Grant from The Heritage Council
Traveller Mapping Coolock
Click on Image for Storymap
The Traveller Mapping Coolock Digital Storymap was launched at Maynooth University during Geography Awareness Week 2022. The project results from a collaboration with the Traveller organisations Pavee Point and TravAct and Maynooth Geography.
Members of the Traveller Community Mapping Coolock Project Team
This digital storymap maps out Travellers experiences – positive and negative – in Coolock over generations and the tells the stories that go with them. The map was originally created by the Project in wood and then transferred to an interactive digital format by Maynooth Geography. It brings you to the places that mean something to Travellers in Coolock and you can listen and read the stories about those places.
(LtoR) Martin Reilly, TravAct, Andy O Hara, previously Pavee Point and Michael Collins, Men’s Health Worker, Pavee Point who worked as researchers and helped co-ordinate Traveller Mapping Coolock.
“This was a really exciting project that took place over a number of years. We’re really happy that a lot of people came to today’s launch event including our Maynooth University Vice President and Pavee Point Chairperson Anastasia Crickley. It shows people take this project seriously,” said Professor Karen Till.
(LtoR) Dr. Gemma Irvine Maynooth University Vice-President for Equality and Diversity and Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson Pavee Point at the launch of Traveller Mapping Coolock Storymap.(LtoR) Dr Rachel McArdle currently at University of Galway and Professor Karen E. Till of Maynooth Geography and editors of the Traveller Mapping Coolock Storymap.
Traveller researchers from local Traveller organisation TravAct and from Pavee Point worked with Maynooth Geography to carry out workshops with other Travellers in Coolock and developed a map that reflected the Traveller experience.
“This is really significant for us,” said Michael Collins, Men’s Health Worker Pavee Point, “As it means Travellers talked about our recent history and realised how Traveller activism helped bring about improvements.
“It’s important that organisations are continued to be resourced and supported to do this work going forward.”
(LtoR) Maggie McDonagh and Kathleen Ward, TravAct researchers on Traveller Mapping Coolock.(LtoR) Davy McDonagh, TravAct and Hughie Collins, Pavee Point who worked on the research.
“So for many of us it was an empowering experience and it’s great to see our work acknowledged in this way. It helps promote Traveller pride and well being.”
(LtoR) Lynsey Kavanagh, Health Programme Manager, Pavee Point; Nuala Kelly, Management Pavee Point and Martin Reilly, Researcher.
We would like to also thank the project funders – the Irish Research Council’s ‘Engaging Civic Society’ New Foundations Grant, Maynooth University Social Science Institute and theMaynooth Experiential Learning Office – and to SFI/Esero Ireland 5*S Project for support with the StoryMap.
