GRTHM Celebration: Film Screenings & Panel Discussion

Public celebration event to mark GRTHM brought to you by Progress in Dialogue, in partnership with The Belmont Cinema and Nawken Assembly.
About this Event
Progress in Dialogue, in partnership with The Belmont Cinema and Nawken Assembly, are planning a public celebration event to mark GRTHM on Sunday 28th June 2026. The event will bring Gypsy/Traveller and settled communities together in a shared public space, with specific invitations extended to Gypsy/Traveller communities and open public advertising.
The programme will include Screenings of:
Mangin Cant: A Story of Land and Place (Nawken Knowledge Project) This short-film explores the Indigenous language of Scottish Gypsy/Travellers (Nawken). Filmed across Scotland and featuring intergenerational Nawken voices talking about what their language means to them.
Searching for the Travelling People (Travellers Times, Rural Media) Heritage documentary.

‘The Ballad of the Travelling People’, created by the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker alongside folk musicians Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl in 1964, was the eighth of a ground-breaking series of BBC Radio Ballads that explored the lives of ordinary working people.

Inspired by an article in the Travellers’ Times by Traveller writer, poet and author Damian le Bas) and with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Charles Parker Archive Trust, we have taken Damian on a journey to re-visit the people and places Parker, Seeger and MacColl connected with more than 50 years ago to create a new ballad for the modern Traveller.

Both short films highlight the oral traditions of Gypsy/Traveller communities. Screenings will be followed by a panel discussion with Gypsy/Traveller community members on their experiences and ambitions for oral tradition.
The Nawken Assembly will also support the event with a display of Nawken artefacts and photographs to encourage
intergenerational conversation around Nawken cultural heritage
"Oral tradition sits at the heart of Gypsy/Traveller cultural identity and is consistently underrepresented in Scotland's public cultural life. Our event hopes to provide a meaningful moment to address that through film and through live discussion. The day will be planned to create space for the kind of intergenerational and cross-community conversation."