Romani Roots

THE "ETERNAL WHEELS" EVENT

THE EVENT CLOSED EARLY TO DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS

WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER OUR MOST SINCERE THANKS TO ALL THE PARTICIAPANTS, PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO CAME FROM SOME DISTANCE, FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE DAY.

WE ALL HAD A FANTASTIC DAY, DESPITE THE WEATHER CONDITIONS!!!!

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE WHERE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE OPENING OF THE EVENT ARE ON DISPLAY.

ALSO OUR PROMOTIONAL DVD OF THE EVENT IS AVAILABLE FURTHER DOWN FOR YOU VIEWING.

FURTHER PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DAY WILL BE ON DISPLAY SHORTLY.

Who came .............................

OPENING THE EVENT was: Deputy Mayor Cllr Malcolm Hall

RICHARD O'NIELL - Romany Storyteller (see Richard's page.) Richard kindly showed the craft of pegmaking.

"LOLLY D" - singer - this young lady is of Romany Heritage and sang a small repatoire of Romany and non-Romany songs.

PUPPET TREE COMMUNITY ARTS - Entertainers

GYPSY TRAVELLER PARTNERSHIP - Nick Parker and others.

AJANTA - Romany inspired band

MIRIAM WAKERLY - Author of "Gypsies Stop tHere" sold and signed copies of her book

COTTAGE BOOKS - Jenny Boyd-Cropley (see Bookworm page)

REDDITCH CHINESE ASSOCIATION - Promoted & celebrated Chinese culture & heritage

CARRIBEAN ROOTS - Promoted & celebrated Carribbean cultural heritage

EL AMERAT - Belly dancers

TALKING DRUMS - drumplaying

GRASSROOTS ALLOTMENT PROJECT -a community allotment based in Batchley, Redditch involving local children.

DABBLERS - facepainting

METALHEADS DISCO - kindly played Romany music and personnel requests at our event.

WEST MERCIA POLICE - Diversity Officer Doug Truland did a display.

WE PLAYED MUSIC FROM ROMANY AROUND THE WORLD AND THIS INCLUDED KERIEVA AND GYPSY BOY LEE WINTERS!!!!!

Deputy Mayor Cllr Malcom Hall opens "ETERNAL WHEELS" event.

Participants listen to the speech

LEFT FRONT: Ms.D.Harris, Dabblers. LEFT BACK: PC Doug Turland.

MIDDLE: Richard O'Niell. RIGHT: Ian of Puppet Tree.

LEFT: Alllistar, Grassroots Allotments. MIDDLE: Veronica Allen, Carribbean Roots.

RIGHT:Julianne, Gypsy & Traveller Partnership

ROMANI ROOTS COMMITTEE - LEFT: Ms.L.McKenzie,Treasurer

MIDDLE: Ms.S.Williams, Vice-Chairperson

RIGHT: Mrs.D.German, Chairperson

"LOLLY D" young singer of Romany Heritage.

In the News............... The Redditch Standard

"Eternal Wheels" event video

Feedback from participants................

Hi,

It was a good day and hopefully some of the peg stuff will be in the local papers, let me know if it is.

All the best

Richard

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Well done all at Romani Roots for a g8 exciting day all b it challenged by the weather we really enjoyed ourselves and it was our little lions first trip out! l can feel that mum would have been very pleased . . .

speak soon

Sue x

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Hey!

Thanks again for the eternal wheels event, it was enjoyed by all, and was a real positive event. You guys where all really friendly and it was a great to meet you all.
We have added you guys to our links page on our website entitled "roots", I hope this is cool.
Thanks again for the publicity you guys have given us!

Rob.

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It was really unfair that the weather was so bad after all your hard work – I did manage to get a few photos and will put them on a disk for you I was in the Travellers Times Office last week and they had requested a photo which I sent - hopefully you can provide a story for them.

Nick

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Dear all

Thank you for your email and I appreciated the opportunity to reach out some people in your region; so thanks for inviting me. It was also good to meet Cottage Books and the Romani Roots team. I know from my years in marketing when I organised events, how difficult it is to persuade people to attend - even if it's free! The weather was positively cruel, but I'm sure all your hard work was well worth the effort, so well done.

Do let me know of any future events - especially if they are closer!!

Bye for now

Miriam

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Hi

It was a pleasure to be part of the event. The rain may have ruined the day, but good things have come out of it because I have met other organisation and they have also got to find out about CRC so the Networking was good.

God bless

Veronica

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Thanks for having us! We enjoyed ourselves a great deal on Saturday – you had all the infrastructure and activity there for a cracking day and when you next do it no doubt the sun will shine and crowds will come.

I understand that there will be another Consortium Heritage day at Hartlebury next year. Perhaps you’ll be able to discuss how the Arrow Vale event complements / differs from that one and ensure a reasonable level of funding for both. Certainly the strength of Sat for us lay in the variety and richness of ‘eternal roots’ represented.

Best wishes for the remainder of the summer,

Ian & Ally

The day's events .........

11.00 - Event opened by Deputy Major.

10.30 - 16.30 - Workshops and Displays available to view etc.

PLEASE NOTE: ONLY THE FOLLOWING PARTICPANTS PARTICIPATED ON SITE AS WELL AS HAVING INDIVIDUAL STAGE PERFORMANCES:

AJANTA Romany Inspired Band

AL EMERAT Bellydancers

10.30 - 16.30 JOEY GREY SOUP TASTER available fron the ROMANI ROOTS stand.

10.30 - 16.30 Heritage Hunt - an opportunity for child, adult and families to use clues(via picture/questions/etc) on Romani Heritage to hunt for and find answers and find the "treasure" prize - an ideal method by which to educate through fun and interaction.

11.15 - 11.25 - LOLLY D young singer ON STAGE

11.35 - 12.05 - AL EMERAT Belly dancers ON STAGE

12.15 - 12.35 - AJANTA Romany inspired Band

13.00 -14,00 - TALKING DRUMS -audience participation essential

IN LARGER GAZEBO AT REAR OF STAGE

14.30 - 14.40- LOLLY D young singer ON STAGE

15.O0 - 15.30 - AJANTA - Romany Inspired Band ON STAGE

15.30 - 16.OO - ALL PARTICIPANTS CAME ON STAGE TO DANCE AND SING AND TO FINISH THE EVENT IN STYLE!!

Concepts and Aims of the "ETERNAL WHEELS" event

We hosted the event at the Arrow Valley Countryside Park Centre, in Redditch, as this incorporates an internal facility for displays workshops etc should the weather be typically English, but has a country area which allowed interaction bewteen the public and facilitator in an "hands-on" manner.

The event "ETERNAL WHEELS" was opened the Deputy Mayor of Redditch, which was developed and delivered by our organisaton, had other facilitators of various parts of the Romani Gypsy culture, such as Romany storytellers,singers, dancers, muscialns, actors and craftsman,( pegmakers) who had all been invited to participate in the days events.

The day will included serving a "taster" of Romany food - "joey grey" for the public and we would have like to have shown this dish traditionally cooked on a open fire - but Health and Safety would not allow.

We also invited other culture groups from different cultures to join in the celebration of Romany Life, History and Culture. It was a wonderful opportuntiy for other cultures to experience our culture and allowed us to experience theirs.

BUT THE MAIN AIM OF THIS EVENT was to educate, inform and positively publicise the Romany Gypsy life, culture and history within the Worcestershire community, whilst supporting and educating those within the Romany community about themselves and thereby giving them a sense of pride and positivity.

We were able show the larger Worcestershire Community the real, true, colourful and diverse Romani Race - its culture history, language, Arts & Crafts, talents and attributes - to show that we are a positive additive to the Multicultural "melting pot" and to dissove the myths, misnomers and negative stereotypes associated with our race. As traditionally, we are a private race, this was a large step forward of faith which has helped promote and pepetuate our race and allowed us to integrate whilst still maintaining our unique way of life.

Many non-Romani had innocent questions that it is about time we answered, and we know that this event has lead to greater racial harmony and understanding between ourselves and other cultures. Many other minority ethnic cultures have been most welcoming and accomodating of us and we showed that we can work well and participate with these others to enhance the larger diverse Worcestershire communtiy.