'Your Neighbours' The Gypsies in Australia

Introduction

Steadfastly the Gypsies have journeyed through the world, shrouded in mystery to the gadje, (the non-Gypsy) since circa 330BC[1]. There have been identified over fifteen different spellings of this word gadje, which is used by the Gypsies to describe outsiders, all non-Gypsies. Therefore to avoid confusion throughout this book the word spelt gadje will be used because this is the modern accepted Australian spelling. It is the inflections used when the word is spoken that denote the Gypsy speakers assessment of the person referred to such as; an acceptable outsider, be wary of this one, this one is dangerous, treat this one like a [2]brother. It is these inflections within Romanes (the Gypsies language) that tell so much more than the individual words.

To learn the full history of the Gypsies one has to sit at the feet of the Phuri Dai, (the old woman of knowledge,) the leader of these predominately matriarchal tribes. It is here one learns the ‘Say’. Although there are many thousand of ‘Say’ they are never referred to in the plural. The ‘Say’ is the traditional way of passing on the oral history, lore and legends of the tribe.

Because from circa 330BC, when the first Romani tribes were driven out of their homeland in Northern India by Alexander the Great to 1100AD when Genghis Khan invaded and drove the Sinti from their homeland in the Sindh, covers a wide time scale it thereby creates many differences in the ‘Say’ of the individual tribes.

Although Alexander reached the Sindh, for some reason the Sinti were able to remain in their homeland until invaded by Genghis Khan, by which time the original Gypsies had already developed a nomadic lifestyle and had reached the shores of France prior to arriving in England and Scotland circa 1200AD. Added to the difference in time there are the differences in the routes each tribe took to escape the invaders, further complicating the history of this nation and creating further differences in each tribe’s ‘Say.’ Nevertheless, every ‘Say’ keeps a strong adherence to the basic laws of their culture that are, in the main, common to all. Just as is the discrimination they all encounter; albeit this varying in times to a greater or lesser degree depending on the situation of the settled people in the area they were seeking a home or just to travel through.

The Romani driven out by Alexander had already reached the north of Europe by 1100AD when the Sinti were only just being driven out by Genghis Khan, but it was the Sinti, a far larger group than the Romani, that became embedded, by scribes, in the written word of that time.

Nevertheless, within the different tribes there is a still vast wealth of history and stories, as yet not discovered by the outsiders or for that matter, members of other tribes.

There is only room in this book to touch on this great well of information leaving quantities yet to be explored. As this book concentrates on the Romani in Australia from the First Fleet to the present day, the Australian pre-history has only been used where it is relevant to give the reader a background to the Australian work.

As we examine the history of these forgotten people living in Australia, we need to understand a little more of their pre-Australian history.

Taking the gadje written word as my primary source for the pre-Australian history, I found vast blank areas in information on the Gypsies. Therefore within the book I address this problem by using as my secondary source the ‘Say’ which expands and, I hope helps clarify the scant recorded written work.

Many historians feel the history of Alexander in India has lot of murky areas. By using as my secondary source the ‘Say’ of the Gypsies, who were driven out by Alexander and his army, perhaps at least one small segment of this history may become a little clearer.

From the time of the First Fleet and the Gypsies arrival in Australia is where the ‘Say’ is taken as our primary source and the written work becomes the secondary source. Therefore, by the use of combining the knowledge of the culture from these two sources, the Romani can be written into their rightful place in the history of Australia, where their talents and survival abilities have played their part in helping to meld the Australian character as we know it today.

It is in an effort to help redress this imbalance of missing and often mis-information that this book has been written.

Throughout this study we learned of the continual discrimination that the Gypsies have endured over the centuries. We noted their enslavement in Rumania, their misery of being stoned when they tried to enter villages in middle Europe, how they had their tongues torn from their mouths for speaking in their own language - that was Spain’s answer to what they saw as ‘a problem.’ These were a few of the many penalties inflicted upon these people even before they reached England and in England it was where they were hung for the same offence that Spain tore the tongues from their mouths. That is just a little of the discrimination the Gypsies have faced over the centuries; so it is not surprising that they constantly fled before the demands of the settled populations that they ‘move on.’

By the time the Romani reached England circa 1200AD no member of the tribe was old enough to remember a settled home and it was only the ‘Say’ which kept their history alive for them.

With the introduction of firstly radio and later television to the wagons of these travelling people, the days of sitting around the fire and learning from the Phuri Dai began to drop away and no longer exist in the majority of tribes. In the same way the songs around the piano and the evening story telling within the family has vanished from the gadje world; except in remote areas or among those dedicated to retaining their culture and oral history and passing it on.

Even so, despite all these problems, or maybe because of them, many Romani have a deep faith in ‘The Great God.’ Although this nation, unlike many nations, does not have a uniting religion, every denomination, religion, believers and non-believers, can be found within its different communities. Having said that, like all groups each individual group tends to worship in the same manner; i.e. Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic being just a sample.

As this book unfolds you will meet a different group of people. I ask you to stay your hand in judgement until you hear the Romani peoples’ side of the story.

Chapter 1 Early History

‘Once We Had a Homeland’

A small hidden text from Macedonia tells of how Alexander the Great drove the Romani people who lived in India from their homeland. This snippet of information is confirmed by the ‘Say’ from the tribes of the people who were driven out, albeit they called him Alexander the Evil. Part of this ‘Say’ is told below.

"All our people were bloody, battered and afraid as we crept from our hiding places under the cover of darkness, searching among the rubble for missing family members. Burying the bodies of our loved ones, we were unable to follow the ritual of burning due to the heavy monsoon rains and the fear of a further onslaught by the soldiers of Alexander the Evil. Others of our villagers finding our terrified young girls and women who, raped and beaten, had crawled away in despair; we gave them what little comfort we could. Grimly we went about our tasks, gathering the children separated from their families in the fighting, the only joy being for those of us who were able to find a loved one alive.

We were all desperately searching; parents for children, children for siblings and parents, none had escaped the viciousness of that frustrated army. We shared the many orphaned children among us those few remaining adults that had survived; this would ensure that they received proper care.

In the chaos, the typical aftermath of fighting, there was so much to do and only the night to do it all.

With the first lightening of the sky, before even the early glow of the dawn sun, our people hurried back to the remains of what had been their homes, only to find the soldiers had been through the ruins and looted everything of any value. With quiet purpose the Phuri Dai drew the living remains of our entire village around her. It is good we were not here, or there would have been another frenzy of killing. She sighed as she looked at her bedraggled people, her voice was firm but tears glistened in her eyes. ‘We must leave.’ "

This is part of the ‘Say of Alexander the Evil’ heard around the campfires when the author was a child. It tells of the beginning of the life of the Romani as refugees.

Although it was unbeknown to them, that day was the day the Romani set their feet on a path that their descendants would be forced to tread for over two thousand years. This highway, stretching into the future across unknown lands, into unknown times, forced them over the years to develop their nomadic lifestyle as their only means of survival. Thereby, because of an invasion, a nation of nomads was created who are known today throughout the world as Gypsies.

As they fled the rape and pillage of Alexander’s army, those first refugees must have hoped like all refugees that their situation was a temporary one and that they would eventually be able to return to their homes. Historical records, both written and their own oral history, tell us that this was not to be.

In the following years, the people wearily trudged along the roads, their tents on their backs, the lucky ones dragging handcarts holding their few salvaged belongings, the youngest, the oldest and the frailest of their families secured as best they could be amid the pots and pans. Monsoon wet or burning sun made no difference - still they trudged onward - the first of the Romani driven from their land in Northern India close to the River Beas in the Punjab, by Alexander the Great. Those people are the ancestors of the majority of the Gypsies who have come to Australia since 1788.

At the time that Alexander entered Northern India, he was already a sick, in fact, a dying man. Under his leadership, his armies had been constantly waging war for ten long years. They were far from their homelands and their loved ones. Communication in those days was sparse and difficult, probably almost impossible for his foot soldiers. Therefore, it was not surprising that not only his troops but also many of his officers became resentful and restless. After the long years of fighting and moving constantly further away from all they knew and loved, many of them wanted to go back home.

This was the time when Alexander’s army entered the land where the Romani lived. In an attempt to pacify his resentful army he reversed an order that had been an integral part of his battle strategy over all his campaigns. The order had been, ‘that, provided the Rulers of the countries he entered accepted his domination; then those countries would not be pillaged and their people not raped and murdered.’ It was because of this change of strategy that, irrespective of any treaty with Alexander, as his armies entered the area where the Romani lived, that area was subject to the full force of its frustrations. Under the armies’ onslaught the Romani could do nothing but flee their homes and become refugees.[3]

In the following years, as they realized they would never be able to safely return to their villages, the Romani began to develop a sustainable nomadic lifestyle. This nomadism eventually became so refined, as the Romani steadily spread across the Earth, that it became a belief by many people that to be nomadic had always been an integral part of the Romani culture, instead of becoming part of their culture due to the forces of circumstance. There are today, very few countries in the world that do not have some segment, either nomadic or sedentary, of these tough, self sufficient refugees in their populations.

Today a few of the patriarchal tribes have survived, but it is the matriarchal tribes that are predominant in modern Gypsy society, and it is within the matriarchal tribes that one finds the ‘Say’ and the old histories. The patriarchal tribes tend to aim to integrate more fully via the political field, rather than in sharing their culture in their new homelands.

The story of the spread of the Sinti throughout the world may be found in DP Singhal’s book ‘India and World Civilizations. Vol. 1 1969’ This is the group that were driven out by Genghis Khan circa 1100AD from their homeland in the Sindh.

Although the nomadic history of the original wave of Romani refugees (330BC) is the longest, little was written of them before the Middle Ages. Therefore, outside of the tribes directly affected, little was known of the people and their stories. In the same way the tribes involved in the parajamos (the Gypsies holocaust) have their horror stories, the historical stories connected to those events; these do not appear in other tribes histories.

Although today, thanks to world wide communications available to all, the Romani can give support to their less fortunate compatriots.

Simple arithmetic tells us that by the time when Genghis Khan forced the Sinti to flee their homes circa 1100AD; the Romani had already been on the road for over one thousand years. Therefore it is not surprising that people become confused because of the time and distance factor between the two groups and the very small quantity of written work on the Romani. Circa 33AD they were recorded outside the walls of Jerusalem as metal workers. This dearth of written information requires us to consider the oral history in order to make sense of this vast gap.

It was the traditions of their culture and the strong family ties, also their isolation from the settled population, which enabled the Romani to retain their history. This factor also re-enforced their self reliance, which in its turn encouraged them to keep their culture within the camp environs. It was this very isolation from the gadje that allowed them to retain their history in its oral tradition.

This isolation continued until the last hundred and fifty years when technical developments in the gadje world began to allow the Gypsies easier access to gadje knowledge. First there was the arrival of the radio, which brought the gadje world and its culture directly into the aitchintan. Gradually television became available and more rapid changes began to follow with the children being given access to education in the gadje tradition, either as settled Romani going to the gadje schools or by the travellers’ education service. It was at this time some of their hidden history came into the public domain.

Nevertheless, many Romani people themselves, through diverse circumstances, are not fully aware of their personal background and rich heritage. Their ancestors may have become settled or married out thereby losing contact with their basic culture; this happened very much in Australia. Often when a Gypsy married out their children did not learn of their heritage until their parent was on their death bed, leaving many now seeking their roots.

Combine these factors with the knowledge that each tribe’s narrative has many different elements; due to a variety of factors. Even the particular routes they took across the world and the events that beset them had an influence. Each tribe has its own legacy of stories to bequeath to its descendents. Romani history is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, gradually being put together mostly by the Gypsies themselves. It is quite possible, and more than probable, it will be many decades before it is complete, if it ever is.

It was not until the Sinti became refugees that these nomadic people began to be written into gadje texts to the extent they can be cross-referenced enough to make a sustainable whole.

Nevertheless, despite there being little in the way of substantial references, within European official documents before the 11th century, and no serious references begun until the 12th century, those years are not empty. Hidden texts are being found among written work by researchers; but the majority of information that covers Romani lifestyle from 300BC to the 11th century can only be found by those who listen to the ‘Say’ of the Romani.

One of the earliest discoveries of serious gadje documentation on the Romani was from the Moldavian-Wallachian archives. These were concerned with transactions regarding Gypsy slaves. At that time, the disparate small kingdoms had varying attitudes to the Romani. Lithuanian officials apparently saw them as useful citizens. Also during this period Hungary and Slovakia used the Gypsy smiths and soldiers as an integral part of their armies. Even so, in 1542 when three separate kingdoms emerged in the former Hungarian empire, there developed a change in the attitude of people towards the Gypsies, due to the threat from Turkey. Many of the local inhabitants began to look on the Gypsies with suspicion, believing them to be Turkish spies. This belief combined with increasing restrictions placed on these Romani by the authorities soon forced them once again back into a nomadic lifestyle. One has only to read ‘A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia’ by David Crowe, 1994, to realise the precarious life of a Gypsy.

Without the oral tradition of the Romani people it would be impossible to trace their history for this unwritten period in gadje works. Nevertheless, these same philologists who determined the roots of Romanes have also used both the borrowed words and words left in the countries the Romani have passed through, to confirm the travels of this nation. It was only when the larger groups of Romani reached Europe that bureaucracy began to take notice of them and its scribes started to embed them into the written word. Therefore, it is from that time gadje records can begin to be cross-referenced with the ‘Say,’ and this is the time when one of the first errors of the Romanies’ origins emerges. The scribes of the day wrote that these people came from Little Egypt’, not through it. Hence the gadje began to call them Egyptians and this was gradually abbreviated to Gypsies. The gadje have also developed many derogatory words from this name that are still in use today, e.g. Gyp – swindle, gypping - defraud by sharp practice. It was in an effort to counteract these derogatory names, particularly in England, that the Gypsies have more recently turned to using other names such as Travellers and most recently Neadis.[4] Now in the second millennium they are returning to the names Roma, Romani or Gypsy. The majority of settled Romani in Australia have no problem with the name Gypsy.

Come enter the fire-lit circle of the Phuri Daies’ and listen to their words as they speak the ‘Say’. Here we learn of many things not only the history and travels of these people. Their ethical standards and what that particular tribe’s religious observances are. We can compare the ‘Say’ with written work available. It is hard to credit but, as late as the 1990’s, according to Kate Trumpener, a story related to the ‘Say’ of the Gypsies who were workers in metal out side the walls of Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion, was being used to justify American police discrimination against the Gypsies[5].

Here is a description of one evening in Easter week just prior to the Second World War.

"It is Maundy Thursday and the Gypsies are gathered around the fire. The next day, Good Friday, the devout will go to the local church, but all of them would share in the meal served to commemorate the Crucifixion. This was plain boiled white fish, with salty boiled potatoes, no butter or milk is permitted if they are mashed. Hyssop bread completes the meal. The Phuri Dai did not rule that all must go to the gadje church, but no one was permitted to miss the meal – ‘You cannot celebrate the joy, if you have not partaken of the sorrow.’

This year the work had been good and the Phuri Dai knew that on Easter Morning each child in the tribe would have a brightly coloured hard boiled egg for their breakfast.[6] It was not often that such a luxury was possible. She smiled as she settled down, remembering her childhood. Her thoughts went to the first egg she had tasted, her mother had managed to afford three eggs to share between her fifteen children; the excitement as they shared those precious eggs; she could still taste the crumbly yolk and silkyness of the white as Lou had carefully spooned her share into her mouth on the little wooden spoon her elder brother had carved for her. They had been so very poor, but there had been so much love in the family. It was the next year her mother had died and nothing had been the same again.

‘Why do we have salty potatoes, Phuri Dai?’ Daniel’s voice full of curiosity brought her back to the present. Smiling, she firmly pushed the old memories away and looked around the fire.

‘Well, why do we?’

‘It’s to atone for our sin for killing Jesus,’ Meralda’s shrill voice cut through the quiet of the evening

‘Not exactly Meralda.’ The Phuri Dai beckoned the little girl forward. She came towards the old lady scowling. She did not like to be corrected.

‘Come’ the Phuri Dai lifted Meralda onto her lap and folded her in the warmth of her red cloak .

‘It is true that our people were working outside the walls of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. We were not permitted inside but our smiths earned a good living making the pots and pans that the gadje needed. They forged nails for the builders, not the tiny ones they use today but great big ones that they used to anchor chains into the blocks used to make their buildings. The smiths had received orders from the Roman army for