Report transcript in: "I am not a stereotype": A Romany Gypsy on Family, Culture, and Challenging Prejudice

Please Report the Errrors?

Oh yeah,

OK,

and I get you winged yourself.

Hi,

um,

I'm Gemma Lees.

I am a Roman Egypsy,

autistic and disabled

artist and journalist.

And um I come from a really big uh Romany family.

And my passions are really

um education and inclusion,

and I'm really educating people about GTRSB communities.

And,

and showing the good side,

because the press only shows the bad side

and our communities,

our cultures,

our histories are so rich and so beautiful and so powerful,

um,

that people need to know

about them.

So can I ask you,

thank you for that lovely introduction,

um what does community mean to you?

Um,

I think,

um,

in terms of sort of gipsies and travellers,

community is super,

super strong.

Um,

we have really strong,

um,

family bonds,

but we also have really strong bonds with our wider

community.

Um,

one of the things that older travellers like to say is oh bred you.

Um,

and it,

it seems silly as

someone in their 40s to be talking,

oh,

this is who my dad is.

I mean,

normally that's something that sort of rich people do,

don't you know who my dad is.

Um,

but actually,

um,

networks and

Um,

kind of who you belong to

are really important and,

and we love to get together and celebrate all of the big life events.

And

yeah,

we just,

and we have a lot of respect for elders and it's just really,

really super strong,

our communities.

And you talked about you doing a lot around educating people.

So what would you tell people that have never heard about your community?

Like how would you like describe your community?

What would you be,

what would you tell

people?

Um,

I think,

I think the first thing is

to ignore the press.

Um,

because it's just so

unbalanced.

They only report the bads,

and I,

I guess it's just not news,

you know,

Roman Egypsy behaves well and pays taxes.

uh,

yeah,

um.

And I would tell them

To to look beyond that.

And

Sorry,

my mind's gone again.

And uh what would you tell people about your community?

We have such

beautiful.

And rich histories and cultures.

And,

um,

you know,

gypsy music,

gypsy dance,

gypsy handicrafts.

Um,

Yeah,

look,

look beyond

the,

the kind of negative,

the,

the biassed reporting.

And um

Yeah,

I'm,

I'm a human being.

I'm not a a stereotype.

And

in terms of like,

you've really give me

a lot

of.

Insight into like your community and the things that are really positive.

Um,

and then you talked about stereotypes.

I'm just wondering about,

like,

the role that you play and the reason why you wanted to share your story.

So why is it important to share Gypsy culture,

gypsy stories,

Romany culture,

yeah.

Just regress

the balance.

It's,

um,

you know,

the

Kind of average person.

All they know is the oh

people are roadside camping,

that that's all people know.

Um,

And

it's,

it's just such a

horrible shame.

And,

and it leads to things like

what happened in Manchester in

December,

where,

um,

our young people

were attacked and put onto trains,

not knowing where they were going,

because the assumption was that when,

when they gathered together,

there was going to be trouble.

And I,

I don't think the assumption

for a lot of ethnic groups

is immediately that a group

is gonna cause trouble.

Uh,

rather than just go to the Christmas markets,

which is what they weren't planning to do.

And what impact

has

and does things like that have on you and and your community?

Oh,

I mean,

it's,

it's devastating.

I went to the march.

My,

my son is 13 tomorrow.

Some of these children were 13 and.

And I don't mean to be kind of over the top with this,

but I went to Auschwitz

in October.

And

the idea of children being

Forced onto trains,

not knowing where they were going,

I mean.

It's an echo of that,

isn't it,

you know.

Um,

and it's,

it's just terrifying that.

son.

Could have a black mark against his name

for no other reason.

than the fact that he was born as a gypsy.

Mm.

I mean,

it,

it's,

it's just terrifying as a mother.

And I'm,

I'm sorry that's your experience.

I want to ask you if you could.

Vision

or reimagine the future,

like what would it?

Be that you wanted people to do and know and.

Be like,

with your community,

like what is it that your commun,

you know,

what,

what needs to be different?

I think the assumption needs to be.

That we

are

Law abiding.

Um,

that we are friendly,

that we are kind,

that we

have strong family bonds that

Um,

that we are human beings

who have bibles like everybody else,

but we're not all criminals,

we're not all bad people.

I think the assumption needs to be

that we are good.

Um,

until proven otherwise,

the assumption should not be that we're bad until proven otherwise.

Um.

I mean,

I've I've met people and they've said.

You're not what I expected.

And I know what that means,

um.

I mean,

I'm,

I'm doing an event um with workshi libraries for GRT History Month.

And it's um a comedy and poetry night.

Um,

people on Facebook,

um,

actually

made comments that had to be deleted.

Um,

because the assumption was that

when a few of us gathered together

to do poetry in a library,

there was going to be some sort of issue.

Um,

yeah,

it just,

it it also upsets me that the assumption is always that.

We're gonna cause trouble.

Yeah.

And

what has really struck me in our conversation

is the reference to community and family.

You talk a lot about family.

And I do lots of like

conversations with people.

And family sometimes features,

but not all the time.

Like,

what does family mean to you?

Um,

I think you can see behind me,

my,

my son's artwork.

Um,

the family business is very important to us,

sort of self-employment in the family business.

My dad is,

um,

an author and a storyteller.

I'm an artist.

My son

is now earning his pocket money helping us both out.

Um,

it's,

I don't know,

it's,

it's just super important.

I mean,

I had a really beautiful moment actually when we were in,

uh,

Berlin.

And we went to the Roman City Holocaust Memorial.

And there's an extra bit that was put in in 2022.

And it's got um biographies of famous Roma and

Sinti people and um the one for Matteo Maximoff.

My dad wrote it.

And I had this beautiful actual really meaningful moment

where I took a picture of my son.

In front of

this memorial in Germany,

and sent it to my dad and was like,

hey,

guess where we were today.

Um,

and even though the memorial is,

is a place of sort of deep reflection and it's very and it was very meaningful to me.

It was more meaningful that I had that family

connection,

um.

And

intergenerational

um,

sort of,

um,

pardon me,

intergeneration

is really important to us.

We're super respectful

of,

of elders and.

Um,

We see elders as very wise and

and to be cared for and looked after and not,

I mean,

Some communities like

they kind of put people in a home and never visit them,

and that's,

that's really

that we wouldn't do that,

you know.

Um,

and we also

Children are involved from a younger age.

So the the kind of family business thing,

we treat children.

A lot more grown up,

and we involve them in things from a lot younger age.

Mhm.

I really have this sense of

like bonds and

history,

so I'm,

I'm

conscious that.

We've talked a bit about stereotypes,

a lot about the positive stuff.

I think these conversations are more important,

particularly because of the

stuff that's happening nationally,

um,

and.

It's so important,

so I'm,

I'm

hopeful like

what would you want

people to take away from your story as a result of kind of just sharing it?

Um,

We're not bad people.

We're,

we're not ordinary people.

We're neither the stereotype of the,

you know,

free spirit gypsy who wears the skirt with the coins on.

All the romantic,

you know,

man who swoops in,

but we're also

not

the,

the troublemakers,

the lawbreakers,

the people who dodged their taxes.

We are actually human beings,

um,

we're all different.

We do share

collective cultural norms,

but in that we're all.

Unique and an individual and

Start from that,

start from taking me as a regular normal human being.

Um,

not a stereotype,

and

I think we'll get a lot further,

to be honest.

Um,

yeah.

Yeah.

OK.

Have you got any questions for me?

Um,

yeah,

um.

Why,

why do you think it's so

important to sort of share these stories?

I'm,

I'm really interested in how it all came about.

Yeah,

think

that

Well,

my experience has been that we can often live

in a world where

our thinking

and the way that we are,

um,

might be based on lots of assumptions,

or,

and,

uh,

um,

there is an expression that I can never remember,

like,

assuming makes an ass of you and I or whatever it is,

I can never get it right.

And for me,

the world is like wonderful and beautiful,

and the more we see people for who they are,

the more kindness

and the more.

Um,

and I was

probably taken back to when you talked about sort of the trains,

and we know what othering people does

as a disabled person,

as,

uh,

a global majority individual.

I'm really conscious that when we other people,

it can lead to dehumanisation and real consequences such as people,

you know,

in our,

Um,

living history,

people,

um,

face the consequences of being offered and

their lives that came to an end as a result of that.

So for me,

it's about

stories matter because people matter.

We can change people by connecting,

and we have more in common,

I think as human beings than we do have in difference.

And actually what.

Is different,

is actually the exciting stuff.

I'm not scared of difference.

I'm like,

yeah,

I'm getting that.

I don't have any experience of some of the stuff that you might

have experienced,

but I,

I wanna know,

I wanna feel it.

that's what.

Yeah,

the same likewise.

Yeah.

Um,

yeah.

yeah,

I think difference is really beautiful and I love learning about people.

I love learning about their cultures.

Um,

yeah.

No,

that's,

that's really beautiful.

It's really beautiful that.

So do you have any final comments before we come

to the end of the time we've got together?

Yeah,

I think the final comment is just that I am not a stereotype.

Um,

And

A lot of prejudice,

like you say,

is,

is rooted in in stereotypes,

is rooted in

putting people in boxes and saying this is what they are.

Um,

and I,

not everybody in the community

don't treat people like they Google,

but me personally.

I will answer any question that's put to me politely.

So if you've got that burning question,

I will answer it.

Cool.

Brilliant.

I think that's a lovely place to end if you're OK,

um.

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Author

streetreporter

Post date

13/08/2025