Atching Tan

Our current project – supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund – is Atching Tan. Atching Tan is a multi-strand project that weaves together drama, history, and education.

Radio drama

The first element of Atching Tan is a three series radio drama that focuses on the relationships between three Traveller families and the settled community in a rural village. BBC local radio across East Anglia aired the three series of Atching Tan in the autumns of 2008, 2009, and 2010. If you’d like to listen again, you can do so here!

Life stories

Atching Tan’s second strand is that of an archive of Romany history told through the reminiscences and life-stories of 100 Gypsy, Romany, and Traveller people living across East Anglia. These recollections of changing lives will be gathered by a team of volunteers, and then collated and stored as an archive available to the public via the Cambridge Community Archive, Cambridge Records Office, local museums and libraries, and Atching Tan’s own website.

Education

In order to break down the barriers is distrust, misunderstanding, and misconception that exist in society, Atching Tan’s third strand is an education project. This project takes elements of Gypsy, Romany, and Traveller people’s stories collected in strand two and combines them with other materials – for example poetry and music – to create a resource pack for use in schools. The pack is currently in development and will be available for use in schools and other educational organisations from spring 2011.

Volunteers

All three elements of the Atching Tan project mentioned so far are supported by the work of our volunteers, who constitute Atching Tan’s fourth strand. RTC provides training accredited by the Open College Network for Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers based on their contributions to the radio production, reminiscence strand, and education pack. It is hoped that by providing these opportunities for learning we can foster a sense of pride in Romany culture, increase general understanding of the Gypsy, Romany, and Traveller people and their way of life, and create positive relationships throughout society.

Find out more

If you would like to more about Atching Tan, please visit its website: www.atchingtan.com