You will often see them upfront, possibly so upfront that you think it is a mirage; a figment of your imagination. The lanky figures up to 15 feet high, carefully and fluidly make their way through a packed crowd. The weather has to be right for the Moko Jumbies to step out. Too much wind and these majestic beings can topple in the most dramatic and violent of ways. But when that wind is just right, and the sun is setting, they are a sight to behold.
Young people are dying.
Gypsy, Roma or Traveller (GRT) children face severe oppression at the hands of the education sector and society as a whole.
I am consistently reminded that art, education and social activism do not and should not be mutually exclusive. In fact, when each of these entities is spoken of, the other two should be lingering, if not in a prominent position, at the very least in the background. For me, the intersection of these three disciplines is a beautiful thing.
Dear Liberation,
How are you doing, our love? It has taken us a long time to say your name, yet now you roll so smoothly and freely from our weary tongues. No longer do we look for more palatable, less offensive alternatives to you. No, we want you, and we fight for you.
What is it like for a marginalised person to navigate the historically oppressive and violent spaces that they live in?
While there are a number of television programmes and films that are beginning to purporting to show reimagined worlds separate from the systems within which we currently exist, they often simply reinforce the oppressive systems that they are so keen to distance themselves from.
We still have a long way to go.