1. Case-study No. & Title:
181. Promoting intercultural communication though the photographic exhibition "Me hinju Rom – I am Roma", Hudeje, Slovenia

Keywords

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name:
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, in cooperation with Jaka Repič, author of the project ‘Roma settlement near Hudeje village: Intercultural communication’

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, M.Sc.
Institute for Ethnic Studies
Erjavceva 26
SI-1000 Ljubljana

Tel.: +00386 1200 1870
E-mail: simona.zavratnik@guest.arnes.si

2.3 Date recorded
27 /11/2000

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The project is focused on the promotion of co-operative and non-conflictual inter-ethnic relations between the local Roma population (near the village of Hudeje and other settlements in the municipality Trebnje) and the ‘wider society’; on intercultural communication between two culturally different groups, living in the same space but divided by clearly-defined social and cultural boundaries on both sides.

One of the main aims could be described in terms of creating links between the Roma population and the dominant ethnic group, and of trying to promote communication between Slovenes and Roma, over and above clearly limited areas like trading.

3.2 Location:
The research and action programme was carried out in a Roma settlement near the village of Hudeje and some other Roma settlements in the Trebnje municipality, Dolenjska region.

In the phase of the programme aimed at promoting Roma culture to the Slovenes, two photographic exhibitions were organised, the first one in Ljubljana – on the occasion of the international meeting ‘Music and Minorities’ (25-30 June 2000) and the second in Maribor (9-15 Oktober 2000) during the ‘Week of Roma Culture’.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Minority: Roma population in Slovenia
Target group: local Roma people near the village of Hudeje and other settlements in the Trebnje municipality.

3.4 Major Actors Involved:

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors:
In relation to the exhibition the only available budget data are those of Slovene Ethnographic Museum (Ljubljana) which enabled and sponsored the photographic exhibition in Ljubljana on the occasion of the international meeting ‘Music and Minorities’ (sponsored by national and local government and organizations).

The ‘Week of Roma Culture’ in Maribor was organized by the NGO – ‘Association of Friends of Young’, with local and national financial support.

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was first proposed in June 1999, at the same time it was also officially launched. One year later, in June 2000, it was put in practice.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
Under the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, all inhabitants are guaranteed the right to preserve their national identity, to foster their culture and to use their own language and script. The status of the Roma ethnic community is regulated by law (Constitution, article 61). This constitutional provision was implemented through provisions of different laws. Representation in local self-management communities is regulated in the Act on the Local Self-Management and in the Act on Local Elections, and several provisions are included in the Acts on Education.

However, legal provisions are not yet sufficiently implemented in practice. For example, there is only one Roma representative in the local council in the municipality Murska Sobota.

4. Good Practice Description
Roma in Slovenia: basic figures
According to the data gathered by social services and other services in local communities, it could be estimated that there are some 6,500 to 7,000 Roma in Slovenia, however, the exact number is not known. According to the 1991 Census, 2,293 persons declared themselves as Roma and 2,847 declared Romany to be their mother tongue. They mostly live in the northeastern region of Prekmurje and in the southern regions along the Croatian border, in the Dolenjska region. It should be stressed that there are considerable differences between the Roma groups, and consequently the level of social integration or social exclusion varies to a great extent. Generally speaking, the circumstances of Roma people in the Prekmurje region are much better than those in the Dolenjska region.

Elsewhere in Slovenia there are smaller isolated groups or individual families. In larger Slovenian towns may be found groups of Roma who migrated from former Yugoslav Republics.

Roma have established quite a few Roma organisations in Slovenia (Novo mesto, Murska Sobota, Puconci, Krško, Serdica, Velenje), which are connected with the Association of Roma Societies at the state level. Their presence in local media is minimal – once a week they have the ‘Roma Radio Programme’ on the radio station in Murska Sobota (Prekmurje region) and Novo mesto (Dolenjska region). Roma societies publish their gazettes from time to time, and the Society for Developing Preventive and Voluntary Work has started to publish the review Romano them – The Roma World.

Exhibition ‘Me hinju Rom’
The exhibition Me hinju Rom is a result of a one-year ethnological research project that was conducted among Roma people in the Trebnje municipality in southern Slovenia. It contains mostly photographs, although there are also some musical instruments that are parts of the Roma collection in Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Photographs show everyday life in the Roma settlement. There are more then 50 photographs, divided into thematic sets such as Roma settlement during summer and winter, work and activities, religious life, baptism celebration, family ties and portraits of children and adults.

Photographs were taken during periodic stays in Roma settlements between June 1999 and May 2000. The exhibition was opened on the occasion of the international meeting ‘Music and Minorities’. In September 2000, there was an international meeting of European Council for Minorities in Ljubljana, which also visited the exhibition. It was exhibited in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana until 30 September 2000. In October it was exhibited in Maribor. It was installed in a bus, which visited many nearby towns and villages and most primary and secondary schools in a larger area of Maribor.

Every year on World Roma Day, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum prepares an event, which serves to further multiethnic coexistence and helps to improve inter-ethnic relations between Roma people and Slovenes. The position of the Roma should of course be legally regulated in a manner that enables complete and sovereign integration of Roma people in wider society. However, integration cannot succeed by mere legal acts, it should occur in everyday life, with a consequent improvement in actual inter-ethnic relations. There are some examples of good practice of integration and multiethnic coexistence but still not enough. Citizens of Slovenia still have unjustified stereotypes and prejudices that are most easily diminished and erased during actual contacts with Roma people. Contacts can be established by means of cultural events such as the exhibition or any other educational and cultural event.

An exhibition was one of the ways of shedding light and alerting a public to issues concerning Roma life, and at the same time establishing cultural contact between Roma people and other citizens of Slovenia. Many inhabitants of Roma settlement, as well as Roma musicians joined the opening of an exhibition. There were also many other guests (amongst them the wife of the president of Slovenia). The exhibition has connected everybody who was present at the opening and shed light on the Roma way of life to everybody who visited the exhibition in Ljubljana and Maribor, where it had an educational role. Thus one aim of the authors, Jaka Repič and Marija Mojca Terčelj, was achieved, namely furthering multi-ethnic coexistence and wiping out of some of the prevailing stereotypes and prejudices about Roma people.

‘What is intercultural communication about?’
The aim of the project was to establish possible new links between ethnically different groups sharing the same social environment. For the very basic reason that stereotypes and prejudices are the heritage of the dominant Slovene population, the exhibition about Roma ‘Mi hinju Rom’ was intended to promote communication across the cultural barricades. Application of the project was introduced in public through the photographic exhibition in Ljubljana and in Maribor.

The exhibition ‘Me hinju Rom – I am Rom; Roma people from Hudeje’ was compiled by Jaka Repič and Marija – Mojca Terčelj, PhD, curator of Department for non-European Cultures and Relations between Slovene and Foreign Cultures at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. The exhibition was displayed in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana between 25-30 June 2000, on the occasion of the international meeting ‘Music and Minorities.’

Roma people from Hudeje were invited to the opening of the exhibition and transport was organized for them. By inviting them, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum tried to set an example of fruitful cooperation between Roma people and a public/state institution, as well as giving them a chance of equal inclusion (at least in this case) into society.

An exhibition ‘Me hinju Rom – I am Rom; Roma people from Hudeje’, has also been exhibited in Maribor between 9-15 October 2000, during the Week of Roma Culture organized by the Association of Friends of the Young (a NGO).

Roma do not live in exile, their home is here
Roma are not a uniform ethnic group. Though they adopt characteristics of different cultures in which they live, they generally remain on the fringes of society. Roma, however, do not live in exile and they have no ‘promised land’. Their home is here.

To the majority population Roma have always been an object of curiosity mixed with aversion. To many people they personify a degradation of the prevailing moral norms. Prejudices based on the idea that whatever is different and unknown is inferior continue to appear most frequently in connection with Roma. Though they have always adapted to their environment, and in the process changed their culture, they have remained outside society or on its fringes. And this is the reason why they have never really settled down. European governments had different political approaches to this group: acculturation, assimilation, integration, or simply outlawing them. They were forbidden to move, but at the same time the majority population prevented them from settling permanently because they were not willing to accept Roma in their midst. Even today, most of Roma live separated from the rest of the population.

Roma from Hudeje
Thirty years ago the first Roma family, the Brezniks, settled on the border of the marshy plain between Račje selo, Blato and Hudeje near Trebnje in Dolenjsko. They were gradually followed by other families. The settlement is now inhabited by the Breznik, Brajdič, Hudorovac, Hočevar, Kovačič, Malovac, Vidic, Bradic, Omahen, Humar and Grm families. Many of them settled here for the first time, previously having moved their tents in the area between Trebnje, Kočevje, Žužemberk and Novo mesto.

The Roma settlement of Hudeje has more than 150 inhabitants. Every family has its own wooden dwelling, but many set up tents in the courtyard and live in them from April to November. The centre of a living quarter is the open hearth on which the women cook and around which social life takes place.

Isolation vs. communication?
Roma people in Slovenia are not only culturally different from Slovenes, but have a unique social position in a wider society. They are surrounded by a dominant society that regards them as foreigners and neglects them. Cultural communication between Slovenes and Roma people is rare and limited to certain areas, mostly concerning trading.

The borders between them are clearly defined on both sides. They live as an isolated and marginal group among Slovene people. Both groups share the same environment, but have different cultures. Roma people have always adapted to the dominant surrounding culture, and have through its influence incorporated lots of foreign cultural traits and embodied them into their culture. The adaptation has transformed their way of life, but has at the same time enabled the persistence of Roma communities and their culture.

Inter-ethnic and intercultural relations are characterized by the stereotypes that both groups address to each other. What we think we know about Roma people, their culture and their way of life, are mainly our own stereotypes and prejudices. Throughout the history of Roma settlements in Europe and elsewhere, there has been a certain uniformity of relations between Roma and non-Roma people. We can see the continuity of the way in which wider societies have treated Roma groups.

The treatment has usually included violations of human rights. Slovene examples of these violations are connected to occasional attempts of certain Roma families trying to settle in Slovene villages. Such attempts are met with resistance and hostility towards Roma people. Roma settlements are only tolerated outside towns or villages, and as long as Roma people do not interfere with local communities.

Social connections between Slovene and Roma groups have been reduced to a minimum in the last decade. Higher rates of unemployment among Roma people and social welfare have helped construct ‘ghettos’. This has served to established firmer social organization on the part of Roma communities, as well as created a stronger sense of ethnic identity. However, Slovenes have marginalized Roma people even more.