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Celebrating Our Traditions

11/23/2018

Last night saw the first in what will hopefully be a number of events celebrating the diverse cultures on Tyneside. it was a very well attended event with over 40 people in attendance. The event was set up to celebrate the local Northumbrian traditions and those which have come afterwards from Ireland and more recently from the local Roma community.

After a couple of local songs from myself, Chris Ormston very ably entertained us all with a set of traditional Northumbrian tunes on the wonderful Northumbrian small pipes. We were then treated to a number of Irish tunes excellently played by Tony Corcoran and players at the Irish Centre. The grand finale was provided by a young group of Roma musicians from Newcastle introduced by Nicu Ion, who played superbly in their own tradition and in the genre of jazz as well and brought the house down.

All in all it was an excellent night, which was enjoyed by all who attended and a night which proved that we have much to celebrate in terms of our traditions on Tyneside.

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Recent Events

9/4/2018

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A Living Tradition was delighted to organise two events in the last week. On Tuesday 28th August, we took a number of Roma families for a great day out at South Shields. the sun shone (just about) and a great day was had by all!

Then on Sunday 2nd September, Peter Sagar from A Living Tradition organised a small ceremony at the graveside of Alexander Wilkie in Heaton Cemetery, to mark the 90th anniversary of his death. Alexander Wilkie was born in Leven in Fife in 1850. On leaving school he went to work in local shipyards, before moving to the Clyde yards in Glasgow. It was there that Wilkie formed the Associated Society of Shipwrights in 1882. In its first year it had 3 717 members. In the 1890's the union moved its headquarters to the Tyne and Wilkie moved with the union and came to live in Heaton. According to census materials, Wilkie lived at 56 Cardigan Terrace in 1891, before living at 84 Third Avenue in 1901, next door to the Chillingham pub and then at 36 Lesbury Road in 1911. He named this last address 'Leven House' in recognition of his birthplace. In his personal life, Wilkie married Mary Smillie, daughter of James Smillie in 1872.

Wilkie stood unsuccessfully for parliament for the nascent Labour Party in Sunderland in 1900, before becoming an M.P. for Dundee in 1906. He was Scotland's first Labour M.P. Wilkie remained an M.P. until 1922. During all that time, he retained his homes in Heaton and returned to Lesbury Road on his retirement in 1922. It was there that he died in on 2nd September 1928. He is buried in a family plot in Heaton Cemetry.

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Roma Kavárna Update

4/11/2018

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The Roma Kavárna Drop-in on Coatsworth Road in Gateshead is going from strength to strength. It has been extremely busy and we are helping many families. We have had regular support from Gateshead Citizens Advice Bureau and also had a visit from EMTAS and Acorn, regarding schooling and housing issues respectively. Many thanks to our great interpreters, Irma, Zaneta and Eva for all their excellent work. Please see the Roma Section of this website for the report for March 2018.

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Roma Kavárna Project

3/1/2018

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Since mid-January A Living Tradition has been running a successful Roma Kavárna or Drop-in in Gateshead. Please see the report on the Community - Roma page. Many thanks to Irma Karchnakova,and Zaneta Karchnakova for all their hard work and Becci Varnham for help as well.... The Kavárna acts as a bridge between the local Roma community in Gateshead and the wider Gateshead and Tynsedie community, enabling them to gain support, help and their human rights....

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Holocaust Memorial Day Events

1/21/2018

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A living Tradition are proud to announce that they are organising two events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2018.

Thursday 25th January 7.30 p.m. North Benwell Youth Project, Ellesmere Road, Benwell, Newcastle. A Living Tradition are putting on another showing of the very powerful and moving film, A People Uncounted, about the plight of the Roma during the Holocaust and the continued discrimination they face in Europe today. This film is suitable for over-16s only.

Friday 26th January 9.30 - 3.00, Armstrong Building, Newcastle University. A Living Tradition presents a a conference on the '10 Steps to Genocide; Reflecting on the Porajmos and the Genocide at Srebrenica'. This innovative conference will involve members of the local Roma and Bosnian communities telling how genocide affected their people and how it developed gradually using the commonly accepted 10 Steps to genocide pattern. We will then use these experiences to reflect on signs of the 10 steps in our own society on Tyneside and in the wider country.

This will be a very useful event for anybody wanting to learn more about the Roma Holocaust or Porajmos and the Genocide at Srebrenica in 1995 and also for anybody wishing to work for better community relations on Tyneside today. Please see the link below to sign up:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-10-steps-to-genocide-reflecting-on-the-porajmos-and-the-genocide-at-srebrenica-tickets-41003656039?aff=es2

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Annual Report 2017

11/6/2017

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As we reach the misty month of November it is perhaps time to begin looking back at 2017 and what A Living Tradition has achieved. So please see below our Annual Report for 2017:

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Human Rights Art

9/9/2017

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1st September saw the opening of my first art exhibition, at Path Head Water Mill near Blaydon, with a series of nine drawings and one photograph exploring our great human rights' heritage in Northeast England.

The themes explored include, the early Radical Newcastle of the late 18th century, the anti-slavery movement in Newcastle and the Northeast, Joseph Cowen and the the Cooperative Movement, the visit of Guiseppe Garibaldi to Newcastle in 1854, the Jarrow March in 1936, the liberation of Belsen Camp by the Durham Light Infantry, Newcastle university honouring Martin Luther King in 1967 and the response in the region to the tragic murder of Jo Cox in 2016.

Some examples of the artwork can be found on the Art page along with a longer description, and an piece from the Chronicle which featured the exhibition on Sunday 3rd September.

Many thanks to all at Path Head Water Mill.

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March 12th, 2016

3/12/2016

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Saturday 20th February saw another A Living Tradition event, in conjunction with The Black Portraits exhibition at the Discovery Museum. On this occasion, we were celebrating the Northeast's great heritage of human rights and community work in general and the work of Newcastle City Council in particular, as part of this heritage. A number of councillors, including the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, were among the good-sized audience. During the course of one and a half hours, those attending were rewarded for their attendance with two presentations, a couple of songs, a short play and a poem, all written and composed by myself.

The play examined the coal trade between Northeast England and London 200 years ago and some of the human rights issues of the time and how they relate to our lives today. One of the songs celebrated the Pitmen's Great Stand of 1765, is called We are Strong and can be heard in the music and writing section of this website, whilst the other, also in that section of this website, was the Lady Waits about Aung San Suu Kyi and her long struggle for democracy in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi was one of three human rights campaigners who have been awarded the Freedom of Newcastle by the city council who were talked about at the event.

After the songs, play, poetry and presentations, people went upstairs to view the excellent paintings. The feedback from those attending was excellent and I was delighted with the way it went. My thanks to all those who attended, especially the Lord Mayor and councillors, Paul Piercy, whose paintings were much appreciated and Lewis Cuthbertson who ably assisted me by acting with me in the short play.

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A Busy Time

2/16/2016

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New year is often a busy time and 2016 has been no exception for myself and A Living Tradition. The first major event I was involved in was part of the excellent Under the Fields of Heaton commemoration of the Heaton Pit Disaster of 1815. On Friday January 29th I was proud to do my bit at an evening dedicated to the links between the mining industry and the coal trade, particularly with London. Although very poorly, I was able to get through a power-point presentation about the history of the mining industry and coal trade with London and further afield, which was then followed by a play reading of a play I have written entitled The Price of Coal. Ably assisted by Lewis Cuthbertson, the short play examining the links between the mining industry and the coal trade and reflecting on how much things have really changed over the last 200 years. The end of my slot was the song also called The Price of Coal, specially written for the event and found on the music/writing page of this website. In this I was again ably assisted, this time by Ken Patterson on accordion. All in all, my slot seemed to go down well with the audience of about 100 people at the North of England Mining Institute and the adrenaline from performing even meant that I felt a little better while I was busy on stage. I managed to get a restful weekend afterwards, which was much needed!

The following Tuesday I was feeling a little better, which was just as well as another important event was due to take place; a Holocaust Memorial Event at the Millin Centre in Benwell, organised by A Living Tradition and featuring the plight of the Roma, both in the Holocaust and sadly the suffering they are still experiencing in parts of Europe today. Again the evening began with a presentation, about the persecution suffered by the Roma since their arrival in Europe about 1 000 years ago, the appalling events of the Holocaust, or Porajmos (Devouring) as it is known in the Romani language and the discrimination they still suffer today across parts of Europe and which has seen 6 000 settle in West Newcastle and another 200 families settle in Gateshead. The point was well made that the Porajmos was in some ways still going on. The presentation was followed by a song called Searching, which can also be found on the music/writing page of this website and then a song written specially for the event by myself and Karen Underhill, who sang and played with me and who was a great help in putting the event together. Karen then introduced four young people she had been working with at North Benwell Youth Project, who sang very well, singing about the need to look after the environment. Karen then showcased the excellent work she had done at North Benwell Youth Project and at CHAT, with young Roma, showing just how much they have to offer Newcastle and Tyneside. there were then short talks by Musa Hassan Ali, who lost much of his family in the terrible genocide of Rwanda in 1994 and from Deanna van der Velde, whose mother had been a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Irma Karchnakova, a Czech Roma inhabitant of Gateshead, who works at the Riverside Health Project, completed a successful evening, talking about life for Czech Roma in the Czech Republic and in Newcastle. All that was left was for the attendees, who numbered about 30, to enjoy the excellent refreshments provided in house by the Millin Centre's own women's enterprise scheme.

Then on Saturday 13th February, A Living Tradition collaborated with Amnesty International and The Black Portraits exhibition at the Discovery Museum. A presentation by myself about our wonderful heritage of human rights' work in Norheast England was followed by very moving presentations by human rights defenders from Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Papua New Guinea, currently working and studying at York University. all in all the event was deemed a success by those who attended.

So on to the next event this coming Saturday, 20th February; a celebration of Northeast Human rights and the contribution made by Newcastle City Council. Perhaps more about that in the next blog.....

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Justice First

7/21/2015

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The news last week that the government is considering cutting asylum support for children by as much as £16.00 to as little as £36.95 has made me reflect again on how we treat asylum seekers in our society. I am also able to reflect after taking part in a special football tournament last month.

On Saturday 13th June, I had the privilege of taking part in the annual justice First five-a-side football tournament at the Goal football complex in Middlesbrough. This excellent and uplifting tournament has been taking place since 2010 and again the day saw a wonderful mixture of people from many different backgrounds coming together to enjoy the beautiful game and forge new friendships.

Justice First are based in Stockton and do a great job of helping asylum seekers to get their cases together. This is a process often fraught with difficulties, as the asylum seekers have often had to flee at very short notice, without time to gather the relevant documents, whilst ever more stringent rules from the Home Office make it harder and harder for genuine asylum seekers to be given the chance of safety they so desperately need. When you add to that the difficulties of living on a very low income, the frustration of being not allowed to use their often very considerable skills to help both our economy and society, whilst often having to learn a new language, then it is fair to say that, despite what some might think, the life of an asylum seeker in Northeast England today is not an easy one.

The great thing about the Justice First football tournament is that football is again able to prove that it can be such a positive feature of society. on the pitch all are equal and the result depends on the skill and energy of those in either team, not to any unfair advantages.

Perhaps the most important part of the tournament is that asylum seekers and locals can get together and interact as fellow humans and friends. This is so important because it seems that so rare that asylum seekers are represented as simply human beings like the rest of us. More commonly they seem to be viewed as some sort of existential threat. In many cases in the media, we never learn their names, merely that we are being swamped or flooded by unnamed members of the human race.

The Justice First tournament is a very timely reminder that asylum seekers are our fellow humans, who have often been through terribly traumatic experiences we wouldn't wish on our own worst enemies and who deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.

After all that is exactly what our great traditions of solidarity, fairness and tolerance have led so many of our predecessors in our great region to do, in so many different circumstances in the past, from opposing the slave trade, to supporting refugees from the Spanish Civil war, to the great work of organisation such as Justice First, the West End Refugee Service in Newcastle, the Star and Shadow Conversation Group in Newcastle and so many other great NGOs throughout the region today.

Long may the proud traditions of solidarity, fairness and tolerance in Northeast England continue!

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Peter Sagar

Peter is a teacher and human rights activist. He is also an historian, specialising in the history of North-east England over the last 250 years.

Peter has been a teacher of young people and adults in North-east England since 1987.

Peter has been the Regional Rep for Amnesty International in the North-east and Yorkshire Region since 2000 and has also served as Trade Union Co-ordinator for Burma Campaign UK and in various other positions in human rights related organisations.

Peter holds an M.Phil in the regional identity of North-east England, from the University of Northumbria in 2005. His subsequent writing on human rights and about North-east England has been published in numerous publications.

Peter Sagar

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