Travellers

These are the children of a Traveller family that live on an authority site in Norfolk.
It is built literally next door to the local landfill site, as are many Traveller sites. This brings just some of the many difficulties faced by Travellers.

They were interested in being photographed as part of my project - raising ...awareness of Travellers and the accompanying prejudice,fear and ignorance. They gave permission for images to be shared.

These children have a Roma Gypsy mother and an Irish Traveller father.
As would be expected from a family that has had to encounter years and years of the most terrible hostility and prejudice, they are tough, proud and incredibly close.
They were also incredibly welcoming and friendly and thoroughly enjoyed the photoshoot. The older girls loved dressing up (as do all teenage girls!) and posing and the younger ones also loved this, as well as proudly showing me the stunningly beautiful family wagon, an incredible contrast to the grey smelly tip yards away.

As I was there, the oldest daughter was trying to sort out a problem with a delivery. Something that the family needed was waiting to be delivered, However the TNT driver had driven down the road, and turned back. They were later told that the company did not delivery because the 'safety of their drivers could not be guaranteed...'

The mother of these children said to me afterwards
"it's impossible. So hard. All your life. Once people know you're a Gypsy, that's it, you're nothing. They've just made up their mind"