Gypsy Traveller Wisdoms of Earth, Craft, and Kin

Leave no Trace: Gypsy Traveller Wisdoms of Earth, Craft, and Kin

Visitors are invited to engage with ancestral practices, crafts, decolonial imaginations, fire side storytelling, poetry, bender tent making, folk song, conversations with a horse farrier and tours of a traditional gypsy wagon. 

Curated by author, researcher and social activist Violet Canon, Leave no Trace is an experiential space within the festival that honours the historical and ongoing natural, cultural, and spiritual relationships between Gypsy and Traveller (GT) communities and the land. Rooted in centuries-old knowledge systems and lived traditions, this space reclaims narratives of environmental care, more-than-human kinship, and the resourcefulness embedded in GT culture.

This space brings to life the living traditions that have shaped GT relationships with nature for generations, Violet invites us to remember the Rag-and-Bone men - some of Europe’s earliest recyclers - who lived by rhythms of reuse, repair, and respect for materials long before sustainability became a movement.

This is not just a look back, but a call to re-learn indigenous wisdoms - to honour those who have long lived in tune with the land.

People: Violet Canon (Proud Gypsy Traveller) and others.

Format: Storytelling, song, craft, tour, discussion, making