Crammed into Cinderella-style horse-drawn carriages, they peek out at bemused onlookers.
Moving slowly in 20st wedding dresses, twinkling with mechanical butterflies and fairy lights, the teenage gipsy brides head down the aisle towards married life.
Channel 4’s hit programme My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding offered a glimpse into the secretive world of gipsies and travellers, portraying women as flashy but submissive, and resigned to a life of domestic drudgery.
To Violet Cannon, who grew up in a Romany family in Bradford, it peddled negative stereotypes.
An engagement worker at the Thornbury Centre-based Gipsy And Traveller Voice, Violet provides information, guidancy, advocacy and support for these communities in Bradford. She is also chairman of the Romany Women’s Union and is fighting for Romanies to be recognised as an ethnic minority.
With an education, a job and a divorce, Violet is far removed from the stereotype traveller woman.
Violet has written about her Romany upbringing in Gypsy Princess, described as a “searingly honest account of what life is really like for travelling communities”. With little existing written history of Romany communities, she’s keen to present an accurate portrayal.
“We’re not a lifestyle choice – we’re a race with our own culture and language, Romanese, which I’ve spoken all my life,” says Violet, 32.
“One school of thought is that ‘gipsy’ is derived from ‘Egyptian’, another is that we descended from an army. But we’re not recognised as ethnic minorities like black and Asian communities are.”
Approached to be a consultant on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Violet claims there was little interest in the inspirational, strong gypsy women she put forward.
“It was all about the 20st dresses. I like a bit of bling, but I didn’t recognise myself in that programme. It was like a wildlife documentary,” she says.
“It showed some positives, such as the high morals and strong family ties of gipsy communities, but to focus on the dresses is such a slim view.
“I represent empowered Romany women – why weren’t our views heard?”
Violet’s family was evicted 20 times before she was five and they lived in various areas of Bradford, including Bolton Woods, Low Moor, Tong Street and Canal Road.
The district has two official sites, at Esholt and Laisterdyke, and travelling camps occasionally appear in places such as sports fields and car parks. Violet would like authorised temporary sites at suitable locations – “Tolerated stopping places with basic water facilities and refuse collections, for a nominal fee,” she says.
“Historically, gipsies have been placed well out of the way of community facilities. If people end up isolated, how can they be expected to integrate?”
Violet rejects the stereotype of gipsies being dirty and insists that “for true Romanies, the absolute opposite is the case”.
She recalls a spotless caravan run by her houseproud mother who made her children clear up rubbish.
“I know some sites are left in a mess, but sometimes it’s a way of expressing anger. Research on eviction has shown a significant mental impact, especially on young families. If society treats you with disrespect, you’ll treat society with disrespect,” she says.
“Settled communities have social and healthcare, but gipsies and travellers are placed so far from this. It’s inequality.”
In 2008, Violet’s mother organised a Bradford District Gipsy and Traveller Working Group Day of Celebration in Centenary Square, with a horse-drawn ‘living wagon’ outside City Hall. Violet would like such events held regularly in Bradford. “The more you understand, the less likely you are to be prejudiced,” she says.
Violet attended three Bradford schools and says she was bullied by ‘gorjas’ (non-gipsies). “My mum valued education and I could read and write before I started school. She taught us that if people were racist towards us, that was their downfall. Some bullied children don’t have that support, but I had the privilege of a loving family. I had a lot of freedom, and a strong sense of security.
“I still live in a caravan and I can hook it up and be on the road in a few hours. People say they love to go home and shut out the world, but gipsies don’t want to shut out the world – we’re part of the world.”
Gypsy Princess is published by Headline, priced £6.99.
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