Government meeting, 6/12/2023

Romani Cultural & Arts Company

Context

The Welsh government currently has a series of initiatives related to equalities and anti-racism in Wales, falling under the auspices of the Wales Race Forum and the purview of the equalities minister, Jane Hutt MS. Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities are under-represented in all of these initiatives, despite two surveys being carried out by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company in recent times to assess awareness and impact about the Wales Race Equality Action Plan and the Wales REAP an anti-racist Wales by 2030. In both instances, awareness, participation, and engagement with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities was extremely low.

This situation is prevalent across Wales, and represents a dearth of knowledge, awareness, commitment to, and work with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller people by local, regional and national government. Questions recently put to government officers regarding this 'state of affairs' have met with no response, as there seems little concern or depth to the government's own understanding.

The questions were:

? The aspiration to achieve an anti-racist Wales by 2030 is fundamentally undercut by the implementation of the PCSC Act 2022, specifically clauses 61-64 that criminalise Gypsy and Traveller lifestyles, in regard to mobility and stopping places; how does the Welsh government think that this can be addressed?

? The anti-racist Wales by 2030 strategy and the action plans from that strategy, require definite measures and yet there are no definite milestones, outcomes, or targets for Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities; there are also no budgets allocated for any measures to address anti-Gypsyism in Wales and Welsh local, regional, or national governments. How does the Welsh government suggest the ultimate outcomes of an anti-racist Wales and addressing anti-Gypsyism be achieved without these measures and resources?

? Welsh local, regional, and national authorities still lack basic information, and understandings built upon reliable data about Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, despite being charged with statutory duties to implement equalities and anti-racism measures in their remit. How will the Welsh government ensure that these bodies do have all they need to properly implement an anti-racist Wales 2030?

? The Romani Cultural & Arts Company remains the foremost organisation that promotes rights and responsibilities, through the arts and culture, for Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, and yet receives no mainstream revenue funding. How does the Welsh government respond to the suggestion that the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities are deliberately underfunded and restricted in their access to resources, unlike every other minority ethnic group in Wales?

One of the key aspects of the REAP and an anti-racist Wales by 2030 is community engagement in supporting them and delivering them. In relation to these ministerial priorities, the need for a vibrant, active and supported Third Sector is well recognised by government itself, in order to achieve the outcomes proposed in these initiatives, and in embedding legislative priorities such as the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015), and recommendations regarding Gypsy, Roma, Traveller from significant, comparative surveys such as Is Wales Fairer? (2018), for example.

Finally, the Welsh government is reporting to international institutions on teaching history in Wales and the inclusion of minority ethnic communities in Welsh teaching materials (Observatory on History Teaching in Europe Comparative Survey, December 2023; https://www.coe.int/en/web/ observatory-history-teaching). Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities are described, by the report as being included in the new Welsh national curriculum in this regard, yet the Department for Education in Wales has only just released its own materials on Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities in Wales to final consultation.

“…there are no definite milestones, outcomes, or targets for Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities; there are also no budgets allocated for any measures to address anti-Gypsyism in Wales…”

The only initiatives around Romani and Traveller history, ethnicity, identity and culture have been produced by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company in recent years, such as the workshops carried out in schools on storytelling and Romani culture; or the training of teachers in LEA's through the regular training workshops in Cardiff or tailor-made sessions in particular cases. All of these activities have happened over the previous ten years, and additionally there have now been two major learning resources produced (one on the Romani Holocaust, another on the heritage of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller in Wales, and a third about Romani Studies, literacy, and alphabets), all funded by other agencies or governments. The reporting to other organisations, or indeed internally within the Welsh government regarding delivering materials related to the teaching of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller history can only be based upon work done almost exclusively by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company.

Discussion

There are three main areas that can be addressed in terms of supporting, engaging, and delivering the ministerial priorities, and the outcomes for the equalities agenda, in terms of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller people:

1. educational

2. cultural & heritage

3. equalities

Education

In educational terms, the Romani Cultural & Arts Company has demonstrated that the production of appropriate, accurate, culturally sensitive materials regarding the Romani and Traveller communities in Wales is best addressed by Romani and Traveller scholars, researchers, teachers, and academics. this has been recognised in both instances of the recent learning resources, as funded by Cadw (the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller Heritage Learning Resource, 2023), and Westminster's Department for Communities and Levelling-up (the Romani Holocaust learner's resource, 2023). Other education teaching initiatives within Wales have produced poor quality information, inadequate data, and inaccurate details that only lead to confusion at best (Timeline).

In order to achieve the educational outcomes implicitly or explicitly described in the education policies and strategies, related to Gypsy, Roma, Traveller pupils, the production and delivery of suitable curricula components needs to be actively supported, not by one-off or small grants, but by direct funding from Education departments. Additionally, support for educators, on an on-going basis must be delivered to enable and empower teachers, teaching assistants and education managers in delivering the priorities for education in Wales and the achievement of an anti-racist country by 2030. Again, funding directly from Education within the Welsh government would address this.

Culture & heritage

The arts in Wales are funded in a variety of differing ways, but primarily through public monies to institutions and organisations. The Romani Cultural & Arts Company recently carried out a report on engagement with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, or rather the lack of it, demonstrating that initiatives in the arts have been solely undertaken by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company over the entirety of its history to address aspects of this issue, but that the arts institutions and organisations have, by-and-large not taken up a more strategic relationship or engaged in initiatives of their own. In this sense, the arts sector has largely failed the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities in a way that has not been the case with the majority community (though the Black and other minority ethnic communities have also raised these issues in their own monitoring and evaluation reports).

“…demonstrating that initiatives in the arts have been solely undertaken by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company over the entirety of its history…”

Direct funding from Culture & Heritage at the Welsh government to support Romani Cultural & Arts Company in delivering awareness raising and anti-Gypsyism, whilst encouraging arts organisations and institutions to develop the mechanisms for a strategic relationship with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, needs to be in place. Developing a truly ‘cultural democracy’ through the arts and advocacy has to be one of the keys to achieving an anti-racist Wales by 2030.

Equalities

It has been clearly demonstrated that the Welsh governments efforts to engage with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities over the topic of equalities and especially the Race Equality Action Plan, have not been in any way successful. The ability of local authorities to deliver aspects of the REAP on a community level have not reached into Romani and Traveller populations at all, nor has any dialogue been established outside the one created by the Romani Cultural & Arts Company surveys of recent years.

Equalities in the Welsh government needs to explore the funding of Romani Cultural & Arts Company to deliver engagement with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities over the forthcoming period, to ensure that Romani and Traveller people are not, as so often, ‘left behind’. Such funding would support the kind of initiatives that are delivered on the ground, in sites and communities by Romani and Traveller Community Champions and supported by expert consultants from the community. Workshops, local meetings, forums, focus groups, parents’ support groups and other cultural activities can all bring the engagement that is so necessary to address exclusion.

Recommendations

Further discussion and planning meetings need to be agreed and arranged to achieve successful outcomes, and an in-depth survey of the particular measures needed in these three government sectors of education, culture, and equalities undertaken to evidence the viability of these brief proposals, prior to budgets being set in early 2024. In respect of both government’s equalities agendas and ministerial priorities these recommendations are based upon the partnership between the Third Sector, Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, and government itself, and the achievement of the legislative and strategic objectives related to these priorities to achieve ‘no comment left behind’…