Brno's Museum of Romany Culture begins to fulfill its dream with a new permanent exhibition
For fifteen years now the Museum of Romany culture in the Czech Republic's
second city of Brno has been mapping the rich, but sometimes tragic and
often misunderstood history of the Romany minority here in the Czech
lands. Today the Roma are Europe's largest minority, but their life and
traditions remain little known to many Europeans. Also in the wake of the
Holocaust, and with forced assimilation in the second half of the 20th
century, many Roma themselves have lost contact with their roots and
traditions. But as the museum shows, Roma have reason to be intensely
proud of their culture and history.
"Our big aim is to prepare a permanent exhibit; that means an exhibit
about the history of Roma, the culture of Roma, from the far past in India
and about the way they came to Europe, then about travelling and how they
settled down in villages and towns. A special part is devoted to the
Holocaust, which is a very sad theme, and then to the history after the
Second World War until 1989."
That was ethnologist, Zdenka Pitrunova. But for years tight finances and
uncertainty about the future meant that progress in setting up the
permanent exhibition was slow, and despite numerous temporary exhibitions,
the museum was unable to offer the broader picture that Zdenka talks of.
But now with the support of the Czech Culture Ministry, and the Dutch
government - through the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, part of the
planned permanent exhibition has just been opened. Jana Horvathova is
director of the museum:
"We're starting at the end, because the support that we managed to
get from the Dutch government was focused on the post-war period - from
1945 to the present day. There are two rooms. The bigger of the two is
devoted to the post-war situation, up to 1989. In part it looks at how the
state treated Roma, and it also looks at what remained of Romany culture
after the war - and managed to survive the huge pressure to assimilate.
"The second room is small, and offers a mosaic of different trends
since 1989 - what has been going on in this country in the relationship of
the state to Roma. It focuses in particular on the media - looking at what
has been in the press, and also showing on monitors, extracts from news
coverage of the Roma and of documentary films about Romany life in various
European countries."
The section devoted to the tragedy of the forced assimilation of Roma is
powerfully reinforced by photographs taken over several decades by the
ethnologist Eva Davidova, who vividly recorded the impact of the communist
years.
"It all started when I was a young student. I realized that my
photographs would be documenting an episode in history. It started in the
dreadful year, 1959, when a law came into effect to force the settlement
of 'nomadic and semi-nomadic people' - as they put it. Violence was used
to make the Roma settle. When the officials came round to register them,
they would sometimes take away the wheels of their wagons or caravans. You
can see some of this in my photographs - here's one picture where there is
an old wagon next to a third class railway carriage - the old kind with
wooden seats. In Central Bohemia, many Roma were forced to move into these
carriages. It was dreadful."
The social and cultural consequences of such violent change were
disastrous, and this is closely documented in the exhibition, but the part
devoted to the rich strands of Romany culture that survive, has more a mood
of celebration. As one of the authors of the exhibition, Jana Polakova,
points out that even the bright colours in which the walls in this part of
the exhibition are painted, have their symbolism:
"Red is seen by Roma as a magical and protective colour. That's why
we decided on it. The other dominant colour, pink, is extremely popular
among Roma to this day - you can see it in the colours they paint their
houses. We have one photo here of just such a house, and that was the
inspiration for the rest of the wall.
"Part of the exhibition is devoted to Romany faith. Another is
devoted to family customs - including a baptism, a wedding and a funeral;
then we have customs that have really expanded since the Second World War,
like the way Roma celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Easter. There's also
part devoted to where people live, to what they wear and to Romany crafts
and of course music, dance and theatre. The most typical Romany craft,
ironworking, has had to adapt, and now many Roma craftsmen focus more on
artistic ironwork. It's the same with basket-making. With the
industrialization of farming, baskets are no longer needed, so now Roma
basket-makers have begun making objects like furniture, or newspaper
stands. Some have been quite successful. "
The two new rooms are just the beginning. The museum's director Jana
Horvathova again:
"We want to start back in India. There will be six rooms altogether.
One will be devoted to the more or less mythical beginnings in India. Then
we'll move on to their arrival in Europe, to the nomadic life. Roma crafts
connected with nomadic life will be on show here. The next room will look
at how Roma settled in different countries and which crafts they followed
there. Then we have the Holocaust and finally the two rooms that have now
been opened - the post-war period and the mosaic showing the present
day."
And we'll leave Eva Davidova with the last word:
"We hope that people who see the exhibition will begin to think and
understand, and that Roma themselves - especially young people - will
begin to identify more strongly with their history, that they will stop
being ashamed of being Roma."
Photo: Jana Sustova
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