“We are finally finding our voice to speak up and stand up for ourselves and our rights!”
Travellers' Times met up with Young Scot Award Winner and Scottish Traveller Bernadette Williamson.The 22 year-old works for Article 12, a network who promote youth rights. As a member of the Young Gypsy/Travellers Lives (YGTL) project Bernadette has spent the past five years raising awareness of the rights of the Travelling community.
Tell me a bit about yourself and your background?
My name is Bernadette Williamson, I'm a Scottish Traveller and I work for Article 12 in Scotland as a community development worker in training. I love my ethnicity and I'm proud of my heritage.
How old are you?
I am 22 years old
Where are you from?
Balloch in West Dumbartonshire
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love reading books and doing research on various things that strike my interest but most importantly I spend quality time with family.
At Article 12 what’s your role and the type of projects are you involved in?
Some of the work I have been involved in includes a series of workshops delivered not only to young people, but to professionals at all levels of society and all over the United Kingdom. The workshops challenged stereotypical views and raised awareness about young people and their rights. I volunteered for Article 12 for many years, and now I work part-time as part of an internship in community development work.
What motivated you to work with the organisation?
Growing up I went through a lot off bullying, people being racist to me and discriminating my culture. When I was younger I didn’t think there was anything I could do, many Gypsy/Travellers going through the same thing as me thought the same thing. It was the ‘norm’ to us. I had to leave secondary school because the bullying got too much for me to handle, it was a lot to go through considering I was bullied and discriminated outside of school too. My cousin introduced me to Article 12 where they taught me about my rights which I didn’t know I had, among other things that I’m very grateful for.
I do this work so other young people in my community can have a chance in mainstream society rather than being secluded like I was and not knowing what to do about it. I want my future kids, nieces and nephews to have an education and a chance at living a life where they won’t be afraid to be themselves. All ethnic minorities, cultures and communities shouldn’t be afraid to do this and it shouldn’t still be accepted to be discriminatory towards others. My past and the future keeps on motivating me to try my best and do whatever I can do to help make a difference.
What are your achievements and things that you are proud of being involved in?
I am proud to be a part of Article 12, winning the Herald Society Award for Equality in 2012 and winning the Young Scot for Diversity award in 2017.
In addition to this working with different Travellers all over the UK I attended an event in Krakow Poland called Dikh He Na Bister. I met so many amazing people from all over the world including Roma Gypsies. The event was to raise awareness about the Roma genocide. It was an incredible learning experience but also a heart-breaking one when learning more about the Roma holocaust.
In your view what are the biggest issues facing young Scottish Travellers?
Scottish Travellers still face issues with education, healthcare and racism. I feel that these issues are being dealt with better than before. The situation is getting better over time but there are still a lot of issues and I feel more cultural awareness raising training should be provided to professionals so they are more culturally sensitive.
How are you and other Young Scottish Travellers working to overcome these issues?
We work hard to challenge stereotypical views towards our culture by doing awareness raising workshops and trainings to not only professionals but to people at all levels. We deliver presentations on our culture to give people from all backgrounds more insight into the life of a Traveller. Most importantly we are finally finding our voice, to speak up and stand up for ourselves and our rights. Many of us are now more aware than the older generation and I am very proud of Scottish Gypsy and Travellers taking a stand for our culture.
Congratulations on winning the Young Scot Diversity Awards earlier this year! What was the award in recognition of?
Thanks! It was amazing to even be nominated I literally had no words on that day as I didn’t expect to win, there were so many amazing people who did incredible things and I was so grateful to even be there with them all. I won the Diversity Award for the voluntary work I did with Article 12. Some of the work included delivering workshops and training to people at all levels of society and challenging negative attitudes and discrimination towards the Gypsy/Traveller culture.
What are your ambitions for the future?
In the future I would love to learn from other cultures and communities from around the world and see every one come together to share their culture and knowledge with others. I want to continue to raise awareness and help others on issues that they face no matter their background.
If you were prime minister for the day what would you do?
That is a hard question to answer. There is so much I would love to do if I was prime minister for a day, the main things I would tackle are inequalities in education, health care and poverty.There has been a lot of change in education and health care within the travelling community compared to the way it used to be but many still face issues in these areas, some of the barriers being trust, lack of knowledge and the fear of the unknown from all sides.