Traveller Tommy turns teacher

I'm Tommy

I’m Tommy. I live in Newport, South Wales and I’m 14. In school recently I have been teaching the staff some basic Cant language. So far I’ve taught them balamas (meat), tud (milk), rakli (woman), goodli (sugar) and vardo (wagon). They’re really interested in how certain Cant words are used in everyday speech, like kushti, chav and mush and never realised it was Travellers’ language that had influenced these words.

Being a Traveller is hard in school sometimes because most of my family don’t go to school and I’m one of the few that do. I think my education is important so that I can get on in life and it’ll be easier for me to learn a trade now I can read and write. I want to get qualifications to set me up.

Don't hide who you are

I went to an event as part of Travellers’ History Month recently and I really enjoyed it – the school wrote about it in their newsletter and I thought it was awesome. It was great to take my friends around and show them my culture and heritage. Some Travellers try to hide who they are in school but this event gave us the opportunity to be proud of who we are. It was great. The staff that went to the event with us got to experience dukkerin (fortune telling) and my form tutor was told she’d have a new house and move abroad.

I’d be really happy to hear from other Travellers and thanks for reading this.