From Potscrubbers to Pearls: the material culture of Gypsy/Travellers in Scottish museums

Citation

Ramsay R (2018) From Potscrubbers to Pearls: the material culture of Gypsy/Travellers in Scottish museums. Thinking Outside the Box: Innovative Approaches to Museum Work (Scottish Museums Federation), Engine Shed, Stirling, 25.04.2018-25.04.2018.

Abstract
One largely untapped potential audience for our museums is Scotland’s only indigenous minority ethnic group: Gypsy/Travellers. Although a relatively small population (c. 15,000 – 20,000 in Scotland), Travellers can be found throughout the country. It cannot quite be claimed that every museum in Scotland has objects related to Gypsy/Traveller culture, but many more have Traveller objects than we currently know. Certainly any Traveller who wished to find museum artefacts related to their cultural heritage would be hard pushed to know where to start (not least because so little is currently on public display). Although some museums have sought to reach out to Travellers through short-term projects, very few have been translated into long-term engagement, collections development or workforce diversity. This paper will explore how museums might break out of current structures and power imbalances in their engagement with Gypsy/Travellers towards a more reciprocal engagement and the various models available for this. The use of old and new technologies – from storytelling and film, to wikis and location technology – and the role they can play in building relationships and democratising collections will be discussed. As well as new technologies, however, this paper will look at museum objects themselves as a technology for engagement. Many Traveller objects in museums represent a meeting point between cultures, as they were made for trade into the majority population. These objects continue to hold the potential to act as a meeting point and space for exchange; and this paper will look at how we might activate this potential.