Welcome to Robert Dawson Gallery Site
Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium III
Taliesin Arts Centre
Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PZ
Monday 1 October 2018 – 9.30am – 2.00pm
The Romani Cultural & Arts Company is pleased to announce the Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium III. The event, hosted by Taliesin Arts Centre, will feature artists Dr Daniel Baker and Daniel Turner plus guests including Dr Ethel Brooks, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University, US and a Tate-TrAIN Transnational Fellow at the University of the Arts London, Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros, professional dancer, dance historian, critic, and Roma scholar of Coventry University, Dr Annabel Tremlett, Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Portsmouth University and Isabel Raabe, co-founder together with Franziska Sauerbrey of the office for cultural affairs in Berlin who are also the instigators and coordinators of the international project RomArchive: Digital Archive of the Roma. This varied range of speakers with their diverse areas of expertise will open debate regarding the contemporary climate of GRT arts and the wider implications for society.
This exciting event will take place in the context of the Gypsy Maker 3 project; the unique RCAC venture that facilitates the development of innovative works by established and emerging artists from GRT backgrounds. The project aims to stimulate dialogue across communities about the ways in which art continues to inform the lives of individuals and communities today. For this third phase of the project the RCAC, in association with g39 gallery, toured an exhibition of newly commissioned works by Daniel Baker, Artur Conka, Shamus McPhee and Billy Kerry titled Shiftwork across venues in Wales.
“The arts bring enjoyment and inspiration to our everyday lives. Taking part in the arts, whether as an individual or a member of a community, helps bind us together in a celebration of our common humanity. But the arts can also help us to understand what is distinctive and important to protect in the differences that define us all. The arts help us to explore and express the things we have in common and our place in the world. A fair-minded and tolerant society values and respects the needs, interests and creativity of everybody. It’s a society that’s impatient of disadvantage, which embraces equality and celebrates diversity. We want the arts in Wales to include everyone. We know this will make the arts in Wales more vibrant, exciting and relevant. We warmly welcome the contribution that this second Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium will make to that debate.” Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive Arts Council of Wales
“I’m delighted that Taliesin is hosting the 2018 symposium and helping to break down the ignorance and prejudice that persists about GRT communities. Artists are again at the forefront of busting stereotypes and bringing light and understanding to what remains a serious problem in our society “–Sybil Crouch, Head of Cultural Services, Taliesin Arts Centre
‘As representatives of an international project that itself seeks to break down prejudices through promoting culture and the arts, we are convinced that Gypsy Maker 3 will play an important role for the recognition and appreciation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller culture—a culture that is centuries old, most lively and varied to this day.’ Isabel Raabe and Franziska Sauerbrey, Project Initiators and Directors of RomArchive – Digital Archive of the Roma
We anticipate that this exciting half-day symposium will generate great interest so please book your place early: register on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gypsy-roma-traveller-arts-culture-symposium-iii-tickets-45552214901?aff=es2
The Romani Cultural and Arts Company
Temple Court
13a Cathedral Road
Cardiff
CF11 9HA
Tel: 02920 786 439
Email: info@romaniarts.co.uk
Message, 23rd Nov 2017
I sincerely apologise for being so tardy in keeping this website up to date. Thedre are so many calls on my time and, as some know, I have been a 'creaking gate' with health now since 2000. I am struggling rather. I will try to get up more pictures but in the meantime am trying to collate all the new info I have found on the Roma/Sinti/Jenisch Holocaust with a view to doing a book - pipe dream, I suppose.
Taliesin Arts Centre
Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PZ
Monday 1 October 2018 – 9.30am – 2.00pm
The Romani Cultural & Arts Company is pleased to announce the Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium III. The event, hosted by Taliesin Arts Centre, will feature artists Dr Daniel Baker and Daniel Turner plus guests including Dr Ethel Brooks, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University, US and a Tate-TrAIN Transnational Fellow at the University of the Arts London, Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros, professional dancer, dance historian, critic, and Roma scholar of Coventry University, Dr Annabel Tremlett, Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Portsmouth University and Isabel Raabe, co-founder together with Franziska Sauerbrey of the office for cultural affairs in Berlin who are also the instigators and coordinators of the international project RomArchive: Digital Archive of the Roma. This varied range of speakers with their diverse areas of expertise will open debate regarding the contemporary climate of GRT arts and the wider implications for society.
This exciting event will take place in the context of the Gypsy Maker 3 project; the unique RCAC venture that facilitates the development of innovative works by established and emerging artists from GRT backgrounds. The project aims to stimulate dialogue across communities about the ways in which art continues to inform the lives of individuals and communities today. For this third phase of the project the RCAC, in association with g39 gallery, toured an exhibition of newly commissioned works by Daniel Baker, Artur Conka, Shamus McPhee and Billy Kerry titled Shiftwork across venues in Wales.
“The arts bring enjoyment and inspiration to our everyday lives. Taking part in the arts, whether as an individual or a member of a community, helps bind us together in a celebration of our common humanity. But the arts can also help us to understand what is distinctive and important to protect in the differences that define us all. The arts help us to explore and express the things we have in common and our place in the world. A fair-minded and tolerant society values and respects the needs, interests and creativity of everybody. It’s a society that’s impatient of disadvantage, which embraces equality and celebrates diversity. We want the arts in Wales to include everyone. We know this will make the arts in Wales more vibrant, exciting and relevant. We warmly welcome the contribution that this second Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium will make to that debate.” Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive Arts Council of Wales
“I’m delighted that Taliesin is hosting the 2018 symposium and helping to break down the ignorance and prejudice that persists about GRT communities. Artists are again at the forefront of busting stereotypes and bringing light and understanding to what remains a serious problem in our society “–Sybil Crouch, Head of Cultural Services, Taliesin Arts Centre
‘As representatives of an international project that itself seeks to break down prejudices through promoting culture and the arts, we are convinced that Gypsy Maker 3 will play an important role for the recognition and appreciation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller culture—a culture that is centuries old, most lively and varied to this day.’ Isabel Raabe and Franziska Sauerbrey, Project Initiators and Directors of RomArchive – Digital Archive of the Roma
We anticipate that this exciting half-day symposium will generate great interest so please book your place early: register on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gypsy-roma-traveller-arts-culture-symposium-iii-tickets-45552214901?aff=es2
The Romani Cultural and Arts Company
Temple Court
13a Cathedral Road
Cardiff
CF11 9HA
Tel: 02920 786 439
Email: info@romaniarts.co.uk
Message, 23rd Nov 2017
I sincerely apologise for being so tardy in keeping this website up to date. Thedre are so many calls on my time and, as some know, I have been a 'creaking gate' with health now since 2000. I am struggling rather. I will try to get up more pictures but in the meantime am trying to collate all the new info I have found on the Roma/Sinti/Jenisch Holocaust with a view to doing a book - pipe dream, I suppose.
GYPSY HOLOCAUST - NEW BOOK
This is my new novel. My aim has been to provide an authentic account of the Gypsy Holocaust of WW2 through the eyes of two survivors. I have based much of it on real incidents for which I have the photographic proof. It tells how two teenagers manage to miss being murdered and how they support each other in hiding for the rest of the War until liberation. The book ends as they explain to the War Crimes Commission the evidence they have of what happened to Europe's Roma and Sinti and the Jenisch.
Available through any good bookshop price £8.95 or via myself (plus p&p). Delighted to sign copies.
My position is this: This awful Holocaust event has never fully been made public. The numbers who were murdered is invariably understated (I can prove 1M minimum) and frequently, the deniers imply that the Gypsies somehow 'deserved it' (the oft claimed 'social misfits' claim is deliberate falsification.). A few years ago, a Jewish academic asked me, "Why are the Gypsies spoiling our Holocaust." That is why I wrote the book so ordinary people can find the truth. Please do all you can to publicise it.
Available through any good bookshop price £8.95 or via myself (plus p&p). Delighted to sign copies.
My position is this: This awful Holocaust event has never fully been made public. The numbers who were murdered is invariably understated (I can prove 1M minimum) and frequently, the deniers imply that the Gypsies somehow 'deserved it' (the oft claimed 'social misfits' claim is deliberate falsification.). A few years ago, a Jewish academic asked me, "Why are the Gypsies spoiling our Holocaust." That is why I wrote the book so ordinary people can find the truth. Please do all you can to publicise it.
British Gypsy and Traveller History Through Art to 1900. Descriptions of over 600 pre 1900 British paintings/drawings/prints and analysis of what they prove about British GT history. A4, 160 b&w illustrations including 15 identified GTs, 170 pages, 11 tables,8 appendices. Many surprises. Sections on carts tents and wagons, costume, law, animals, travel, occupations, travel and numbers, camps, equipment etc, indications of area of country being illustrated and much much more. Not available through bookshops. My website www.robertdawson.co.uk
My latest young adult novel
Tom is a young man from the traveller community with a six-year-old sister, Luckry (Lucretia) who’s a bit of a pain, and a ‘girlfriend’ (don’t say that or she’ll slap him) Nat. All is going well in a kids growing up kind of way until fracking starts in the local countryside. Tom got his nickname ‘Blotch’ owing to the burns he got from corrosive chemicals stored in the mining company’s yard next door to the Traveller site.
But the Travelling community has some beliefs that are not held by everyone and such strong family ties that even death cannot separate generations. And when Luckry swears she’s received instructions from dead Big Gran involving throwing money in a wishing well she just has to do it, even if means bringing on an earthquake … and then she goes missing leaving Tom and Nat with the terrifying task of trying to find her.
This is an adventure story which has central themes of acceptance of Travellers, a big brother looking out for his little sister. and the dangers of dabbling with our environment.
Available as hardback (£14.99) and paperback (£7.99). I'll be honoured and delighted to sign copies for people.
To order, see my website bob@robertdawson.co.uk
Publisher Austin Macauley www.austinmacauley.com
NOTE ABOUT REPRODUCTION
I AM HAPPY FOR PEOPLE TO REPRODUCE IMAGES FROM THIS SITE SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING. I HAVE THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON THE MAJORITY OF THE IMAGES. MANY ARE UNIQUE. ANY ITEMS REPRODUCED FROM THIS SITE MUST STATE: "Reproduced by courtesy of the Robert Dawson Romany Collection." Some images may also be copyright and users must clear copyright for themselves - I cannot give that consent.
On this site are a range of pictures of Gypsies and other Travellers in history, the UK and elsewhere. It is still under construction and will be for a long time to come. When I can I am including additional information but often the pictures speak for themselves.
They have been accumulated over a 50 year period (mainly in the last 30) and some are very rare or even unique. Please note tat though a minority of these pictures are widely available, I have the only copy for some and may hold the intellectual property rights. Others are copyright other people (such as Barrie Law). So if you want to use them somehow or in something, you must obtain permission first. A fee may be involved depending on what they are required for. I have also donated some 500 originals of the Gypsy Holocaust to the National Holocaust Centre at Laxton, Notts.
Aad Wagenaar’s moving book and exceptionally important book SETTELA, very ably translated into English by Janna Eliot, is now out. £7.99 plus £2.01 p&p = £10.00 Soft-back, approx. 120 pages
TO ORDER:
Send a cheque, made payable to
R L Hollands, to:
Lamorna Publications, Yew Tree Studio, Marshwood, Bridport, Dorset DT6 5QF
THE BOOK WILL BE SENT TO YOU, FIRST CLASS
Aad Wagenaar, a leading Dutch journalist, was haunted by the image of a young girl looking out from a boarded up cattle train – she appears for no more than seven seconds in a film of a forced exodus. The train was bound for Auschwitz.
Wagenaar was so touched by this image that he determined to discover her identity. Who was she and did she survive?
In this book, first published in Dutch in 1995, Wagenaar recounts his tireless search for the truth. After visiting the Westerbork transit camp in Holland, and searching the war archives in Scheveningen and Amsterdam, and meeting Jewish Auschwitz survivors, he finds the Dutch Sinti (Gypsy) community…..and the answer to his quest. That iconic face belonged to a Sinti girl known as Settela. She did not survive but was, at just nine years old, murdered at Auschwitz.
The book was translated into English by Janna Eliot and published in 2005 by Five Leaves Publications with an Afterword by Dr Ian Hancock who writes on the Holocaust (Porrajmos – the Devouring - in Vlax Romani) as it affected Romani and Sinti people.
When Five Leaves Publications decided to withdraw the book, SETTELA, was about to go out of print . However, thanks to Janna Eliot’s campaign to save the book from the obscurity Settela herself suffered for so many years, Lamorna Publications took up the baton.
SS and Romanies on Photos
Many photos show Romanies with Nazi solders. I had always assumed these were simply casual encounters but a detailed examination of 89 such photos show that in 50 such photos, the Romanies are with SS soldiers and in 9 more believed to be so.
March 2016: The death certificate below is from one of the labour sub camps at Auschwitz - not the Gypsy camp, proving the presence of Gypsies other than in the Gypsy camp. I have obtained several more, plus punishment sentences of mainly Austrian Sinti or Roma from Gross-Rosen plus a few permissions to go to the camp brothel, again mainly Austrian. I have more to go up to do with the genocide of Romanies but time and my health situation work against me.
I have concentration camps - mainly from Gross Rosen - for Zigeuners of the following surnames. Most are Punishment Orders or Death Certificates. Sometimes I have certificates of more than one person with the surname. Sometimes I suspect that German spelling of surnames was unreliable.
Angelowicz, Arkan, Arogant, Bagniska, Bakuto, Balamut, Baranskij, Baron, Barylka, Birbant, Bojkavicz, Bordi, Braginskij, Braginow, Brodski, Czarnyj, Czerwinski, Czerwony, Danko, Drozdek, Grodecki, Holobla, Hufnal, Hultaj, Ignatowski, Iwanovskij, Kalinowski, Karalski, Kowalksi, Majewski, Majka, Nemirowski, Oleszko, Podolskaj, Poklonski, Rodskij, Romanava, Romanowski, Ruzzkij, Sagan, Schandor, Schukowicz, Sobolowski, Stefanowski, Tokar, Wedrowiec, Wedzidlo, Wegierka, Weinarowksi, Wierzba, Wilczur, Wilk, Winnika, Wizak, Wolynskij, Wozak, Zareba, Zirko, Zwanski I also have death cards for the following Zigeuners in the German army: Schmidt, Schuh, Weiss. Late Aug 2017
Very sorry, I have a lot more images to put up but everything seems to conspire against me. Please bear with me. Mid March 2017 The total of images on this website now exceeds 4000. There are still a few more dozen to come. Just added more images to: Early Gypsies and History Fairs Scottish Nawken Lifestyle Portraits Irish Non UK Art Camps etc Wagons Holocaust I will moisten your eyes with tears. The original photo above, near the top, has been labelled on the back by the German soldier: 'krabbe lause' (= 'pubic lice'. I cannot do German accents on my machine) Also, I am on the brink of putting up some punishment sentences on named Roma at Gross-Rosen. 
Above, left, little malnourished Gypsy girl in a concentration camp; right, Gypsy children in a camp at Vranje Banja, c 1942. Below, myself aged about 17/18 with my own wagon.
Left, Vincent., Gypsies on a Path; below, the Cooper family, Queen Victoria.
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Left, wayside burial site at Belph, Derbys, members of RTFHS and myself. . (Unsure of family buried there but believed to be Edwards)
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