“Like many moments in history, few could have imagined the impact of the Tent Embassy or its enduring legacy when it was first established on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia Day 1972.”

Larissa Behrendt – Foreward The Aboriginal Tent Embassy – Sovereignty, Black Power, Land Rights and the State. Edited by Gary Foley, Andrew Schaap and Edwina Howell

Romani Embassy is an artistic installation and performance. Its starting point was looking at the Indigenous Rights movement in Australia first taking place in 1972 on Australia Day outside the Parliament House in Canberra with a beach umbrella and a hand painted sign saying ‚Aboriginal Embassy‘ were Billy Craig, Tony Corey, Michael Anderson and Bert Williams.

Romani Embassy is an ongoing installation and performance by Delaine Le Bas, conceived as an idea for Gypsy Revolution at HIAP Residency Suomenlinna Helsinki Finland in 2012, first embodied as performance for When The Fuel Runs Out People Will Need Horses in London June 2015. It is embodied within the artist and or within the space that the artist occupies. As a community we have no “one homeland”, no one country, no one nation state as such. We are in many lands but never fully accepted, at any time we can be purged from the general population. We are an embodiment of an international population, we have many religions, we speak many languages and speak many versions of our own language. We have little self-representation politically and no Embassy anywhere to run to in times of trouble.

Romani Embassy is an information point, a living archive, an embodiment of reclaiming the stolen artefact that we have become. It can morph in size, change its appearance, appear and disappear. It is not contained within one building, it is a moving, flexible structure. It is cardboard sign made on the move. It exists within real and virtual space and time. It can be one person, it can possibly be more. It can be a distribution point to question majority societies opinion and ongoing mistreatment of us. It can be a silent act of resistance. Romani Embassy is an ongoing performance, artwork, activism.

Romani Embassy
When The Fuel Runs Out People Will Need Horses
PRISaC
Performing Romani Identities Strategy & Critique
Autograph Rivington Place & The Romani Triangle
London
June 2015

TITLE

TITLE – a film constructed by Charles Newland and the KAKKA Collective from Charles Newland on Vimeo.

 

Romani Embassy
Fete Le Insurrection Gitane
Paris
May 2016

 

Romani Embassy
Jaw Dikh
Czarna Gora
Poland
August 2016

 

Romani Embassy
A Question Of Authenticity?
East Street Arts
Leeds
U.K
4th – 7th July 2017

 

Romani Embassy
Bradford City Park
Bradford
U.K
6th July 2017

 

Romani Embassy
Alexander Platz
Berlin
Germany
13th July 2017

 

Romani Embassy
International Roma Caravan Memorial
Szczurowa
Poland
28th July 2017

 

Romani Embassy
Jaw Dikh
Czarna Gora
Poland
29th July – 4th August 2017

 

Romani Embassy
Romani History X
Maxim Gorki Theatre
Berlin
Germany
14th September – 26th November 2017