Calling Out the Catalogue

Romani Singers in an Archive of English Folk Song

Abstract

The implicit and explicit silencing of Romani and Traveller voices in museum and archive collections, and in the wider narrative of British history, has been increasingly recognised over the last decade (Matthews 2015). In the pursuit of decolonising museums and archives, however, institutional recognition of the significant contributions of Romani and Traveller peoples to the traditional music heritage of the UK and Ireland has largely been absent.

Throughout the 20th century and increasingly since the 1960s, folk song collectors around the British Isles have turned to Romani Gypsies and Travellers in search of traditional songs and music. Hamish Henderson, Ewan MacColl, and Peggy Seeger, amongst others, admired Romani and Traveller singers for preserving what collectors perceived to be native song traditions.  Recordings of Romani Gypsies and Travellers, held in national and regional sound archives, have had a lasting impact on folk repertoires in the UK and Ireland. However, the incorporation of such recordings into specialist collections has tended to erase Romani and Traveller identities. As the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the singers are rarely acknowledged in the catalogues, and are searchable only with specialist knowledge, their songs are implicitly added to the canon of English, Scottish or Irish folk music. The songs are thus co-opted, not to tell Romani Gypsy and Traveller stories and history, but those of a majority population.

This article addresses specific issues pertaining to an English archive collection held at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in Cecil Sharp House, London. Recognising the precariousness of funding that many specialist collections face, we do not simply critique a lack of progress regarding representation. Instead, we outline how Romani and Traveller communities might collaborate with archivists, cultural events organisers, and universities, to connect archival collections with various publics in England today.