International Women’s Day Event In Ennis

0:00Now, tomorrow, a big day, it's International Women's Day celebrations in NS, and ahead of that, those celebrations hosted by Women's Collective Ireland, Claire and Claire Traveller Community Development Project, were joined by one of the event's special guests, Helen Hutchison. Traveller Pot will be sharing our powerful words as part of the morning's celebration of connection, creativity and community under this year's theme, Give to Gain, and Helen joins me on the line now. Helen, thank you for being with us on morning focus. Thank you for having me. You are taking part in this year's International Women's Day celebrations in NS. I will be down in NS, take part tomorrow. We will be, I will be with the Claire Community CPT Group, and it will be on hosted on International Women's Day, so that will be on tomorrow. The theme of this will be to give and gain, mean and give a little of yourself a song, a poem, a story and friendship. It's a way of understanding

1:03our community. Also, it's a way of internet and would settle women because we seem to be doing enough a lot of that and it's good that everybody is included. Councillor Mary Hollard will officially open this year's event, and we're also pleased to have the feminist and the LTGB community as well with our patron. I can't pronounce her name right. Evely and Smith, who will join us for a morning celebration, so it ends to be a great day whether or less going on in a day, for everybody, so I'm sure people will walk away whether or not from it. Yeah, it sounds like they will. I'm plenty happening in the day, Helen Centres, around generosity, shared stories and connection. How powerful a storytelling within the Traveler community.

2:07Very powerful, it was once upon a time, it was the only entertainment that young Traverse would have ever before we settled down. We used to be camped under wagons. I remember we would have been one of the first Traverse to be housed under the Itinerancy Act of Cherry Hotter regime in 1967, so we were taken from their old then, and I remember we had wagons and we had open fires. My brothers used to play the motocons, my father used to play the tin whistle, my mother was a great singer, and so I mean, I was always music gone, but we always told stories told and really based upon our own way of life gone back to the generations, as for us not to lose our culture or our history, that was very much kept alive to the owner generation for us to pass

3:07down to the younger generation. So storytelling hugely important, and even outside the Traverse community storytelling is one of those joll skills that we don't want to lose out on, but I'm curious to find out how poetry became a big feature of your life. So storytelling integral to the Traverse community was it a natural offshoot that you got into poetry or was that an unusual eternal turn for you to take? Because of the settling down and because of the simulation, because of being taken from our own community and having a fair bit of knowledge of where we came from, but going to school then and losing it and the system trying to change your condition into their way of life, into thinking that you weren't the Traverse, you were a settled person because that was actually set to into schools. After I left school and I come

4:14out when we were in our teenage years, we used to, we lived up a lane in Club Jordan and we went down that lane, we come to the end of it, and we be automatically a settled person when we call that lane, automatically we would be a Traverse. So it left us very confused family. So I started in around 18, I felt very lost and I started a journey to find myself to know who were we and I got to be part of a group called Pavy Point which learned me on society and where we sit in society which wasn't a lot and from there and from all my walk down through the years, I started to write poetry based upon my lived experience. So I wrote poetry upon what it was

5:17like to be taken off the roads. What way did I feel now we were in houses? What way did I view Traverse and who was I as a Traverse woman and what was out there to benefit me and who would help me on my journey and how many other Traverse were in this scenario which to me I found out the all were to what many Traverse really wanted to study but when you were four settled and you were told that you weren't a Traverse anymore that you are now a settled person. It was the first day and I was only a six-year-old child that were brought up to the top of a classroom and we were actually told that and to us that was an indication, the first indication ever that we were different so you can imagine our little minds at that time looking up at the teachers and looking

6:20at the children and the children looking back at us were content that it hit hard but yes within the school system the bullying and everything that happened to us as a family and then going on to lose into my brothers through suicide because of the discrimination and because of the suppression and then going on farther in life to lose two more of my nephews to brothers and then losing an niece and a nephew it really brought it home to me that there was big Traverse big issues among the Traverse community but it could never be solved unless it took the deracism and the prejudices they got to be addressed. Yeah can I ask I mean that is such an incredible toll of loss to have experienced

7:28through poetry is that a way to express your creativity but to not just you know be given that you're talking about the difficulties of assimilation but a way to remember those difficulties but also a way to remember those you've lost and also your traveler culture the storytelling preserves your history and the poetry does as well. It does and I try to bring in the pain we went through through my poetry and in order because the pain that we went through it wouldn't be what I would call and we went through is what all Traverse went through because this day and age is affecting every Traverse into country through a side of seven times the national average so there has to be more done within the system to have Traverse when you're told you're not wanted to get no job you're not served and pokes you not served even to get a dinner there's

8:28no for for you for to get your child holy communion or weddings and you like that you're frowned upon and you're told sorry not here sorry not here even though I know of young Traverse who have set dates and we're meant to be in the hotels on that date their wedding day only to be told to go away turn around and go home without having any reception that's how bad that discrimination is in Ireland and in England as well so so it so those events things like that incidences like that still you know even despite attempts to assimilate marquee out as their othering year a marquee out is different than is that why an event like tomorrow's event is so important because it it's about it's about it's about in not just inclusion but about understanding across communities it is and we'll be talking in awful lot about that when we talk in its solutions and we'll be talking for more Traverse to stand up to the system and

9:30it's a sort of a way of of reaching out to each other and saying to each other we are here for each other and that's happening now all over the country where Traverse are starting to shine up and being more articulate and Traverse as well are getting a better education now than the war back in my time I only went to secondary schools at second class in a national school and where Traverse now reach reach second third level education which is great and we have an awful lot of young Traverse young women and young men out there now and hopefully they will take positions of power and that they will be able to empower Traverse in some way even by then being there that they will give Traverse the hope that we can do this too especially young people we can do this we can follow so it's a great way for young Traverse to look

10:34up to the older generation which I would mean older and I would be people in their late 20s tortuses young ones coming up need to look within and need to take a stance and need to understand that what those people are doing are they're doing it for them and yeah I Helen your culture is clearly important very important to you as a Traverse how important is in in in in in unison with that is your gender to not just be a traveler poet but to be a female traveler poet and to me a female traveler poet I'm proud that I'm a female traveler poet because out to the few of us I love that the notion of just getting the pain and writing down from the woman's trying to view on the life that we live because traveling men aren't inclined to do that but the errands lie now

11:38to go to theater and get their advice her to drama to act and to sing in there's an awful act of that going on but for me as a woman I would I find myself sometimes on the outside looking in for us I overcome that no one who I am and no one my worst because you've got to know your worst is not as if people are looking at you in a bad way it's your self that you've got to come to a level in your mind and say I am a poet and this is my life and this is the way I'm going to live it and you know so that that that that would be my take on that that you can help with being who you are and regardless of whether you're gay or whatever you are you are still a human being and you've got to treat everybody with equality we all come into this world for a reason

12:44and we'll leave it with the same reason and there is no point in anybody sitting back and thinking they have the nerve to judge another person nobody has that right yeah we are all equal and regarding what country you come from but where you are I am an Irish traveler woman I am proud of my heritage my traditions but I am proud of my identity because without an identity you are nothing but we appreciate you Helen joining us and you expressed yourself very well and no doubt you we got a great reception along with everyone else is going to be part of that international women's day celebrations in NS that's hosted by women's collective Ireland Claire and Claire traveler community development project on the traveler poet Helen Hutchinson will be sharing our powerful words as part of the morning celebration of connection creativity and community under

13:45this year's theme give to gain you