Mr. Martin Collins:

I thank an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputies and Senators. Pavee Point is extremely grateful to be here today to present to the committee on what further steps and actions need to be taken to further the inclusion and visibility of Travellers in the culture and arts sector.

Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre has been working to challenge racism and promote Traveller and Roma inclusion in Ireland since 1985. The organisation works from a community development perspective and promotes the realisation of human rights and equality for Travellers and Roma in Ireland.

I will quote the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, on 1 March 2017 when he made that historic statement in the Dáil: "Our Traveller community is an integral part of our society for over [a millennium] with its own distinct identity – a people within our people." He went on to state:

As Taoiseach, I now wish formally to recognise Travellers as a distinct ethnic group within the Irish nation. It is ... a historic day for Travellers and a proud day ... for Ireland.

That was indeed a very symbolic and historic statement where our ethnicity was acknowledged by the State. However, that statement will ring very hollow indeed if we do not build on it. While Travellers have made a massive contribution to Ireland’s cultural heritage, Travellers as a collective are still invisible in today’s culture and arts sectors.

Since our inception, Pavee Point believed a community work approach could empower and develop self-awareness, self-esteem and confidence to enable greater Traveller participation in Irish society, including in the arts and culture sector. Pavee Point undertook a series of activities to promote Traveller culture and identity, often incorporating arts work. We put forward our ideas in a book called A Heritage Aheadand carried out activities in music and singing, the Traveller language, Cant, and publications including Traveller folk tales and songs. We were a lead on nominating the Traveller language, Cant or Gammon, and Traveller tinsmithing to the national inventory of intangible cultures, which we are glad to say met a positive response at the Department shadowed by this committee.

Since the recognition of Traveller ethnicity in 2017, we are glad to have been able to work with a variety of arts and culture institutions to promote Traveller inclusion in these mainstream institutions. Very recently, we embarked on a partnership with the Arts Council to support the further development of ambitious Traveller arts and culture initiatives and practices. Local and community arts are vital to Travellers, as it is at this level that there currently exists a strong network of Traveller organisations. However, it is our belief that local authorities and arts bodies need to explore how they could develop collaborative work with Traveller organisations and close the gap between policy commitments and implementation. Active participation and engagement with Traveller organisations to identify the supports required to further develop this work will be crucial in building better Traveller inclusion in local and community arts. In doing this, we need to create the conditions where Travellers have ownership over the interpretation and articulation of our identity, culture and history. Quite often, this has been done through a settled lens and that is not acceptable. This means developing long-term, sustainable approaches to building relationships and capacity. There need to be targeted measures that provide ring-fenced funding at both central and local level for Traveller arts projects led by Travellers and Traveller organisations. An essential step is for Travellers to be explicitly named in local authority and national arts and culture plans. It is our experience that unless Travellers are named, we are generally ignored and left out. While there are some good examples of Traveller inclusion in arts around the country, we need to make this the norm. In addition, to understand the lived experience of Travellers, anti-racism and anti-discrimination training in line with the new national action plan against racism needs to be delivered to local authorities and other key stakeholders. Part of the overall process is for Travellers and Traveller organisations to be able to talk to this committee today. We thank members for the opportunity and hope it will be the start of what could be a really positive and empowering process. We have detailed our points in our submission, which members can read at their leisure, and my colleague, Ms McCabe, and I will answer any questions the committee may have.