Last Travellers - Barny - Wanderlusts
I started documenting the "Last Travellers" last year in the GRT ( Gypsy, Roma Travellers) and New Travellers communities with the aim of archiving those on the road who stick to their nomadic and traditional traveling lifestyle despite being constantly harassed by the government. They want to force Travellers to settle down through regulation. According to the Roma Civil Rights Movement, "the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 is set to dramatically reduce the rights of GRT people to exercise their nomadic culture, by making trespass a criminal offence and increasing the powers of the police to seize property where individuals reside. This racist law is the culmination of centuries of discrimination that will leave these minority groups even more excluded." The Police Bill 2021 represents the biggest threat to the traditional lifestyle of Roma Gypsies and Irish Travelers in our lifetime. Under the restriction, the police will have the right to seize Gypsy, Roma and Traveller homes, fine Gypsies, Roma and Travellers up to £2,500, and even jail those who have to lead a nomadic lifestyle due to the lack of safe legal stopping places. This restriction appears to be aimed at eradicating nomadic life by decision-makers in Britain. This bill does not only affect members of the GRT community, but also the New Age Traveller Community. For them, the law also restricts the traveling and nomadic way of life. Gypsies and Travellers face the situation where it will almost be impossible for them not to break the law. It’s a situation Bill Lloyd describes as ‘using a sledgehammer to crack a nut." Roma journalist, activist and filmmaker Jake Bowers called this bill "the last coffin of nomadic life in the country". With my pictures, I wanted to express the feeling of freedom and the beauty of the nomadic life, not the difficulties of the nomadic life, the desire and effort they have to preserve the cultural heritage, and how the members of these two communities live. At the same time, I would like to draw attention to the sensitive and difficult, unjust situation in which these communities are.
