Delivered by Bronwen Riley and Ioana Morpurgo
There are now c. one million Romanians living in the UK. Contributing to British society at all levels, most Romanians have arrived in the UK in the past two decades. Yet the earliest group of ‘Romanians’ to live and work in Britain arrived over 1900 years ago, as part of the Roman army. Soldiers from Dacia (now Romania) helped to build Hadrian’s Wall, and were stationed on and around it for centuries.
Help us tell the story
British writer Bronwen Riley, and Romanian writer Ioana Morpurgo, will work with Romanian people living in the north of England to tell the story of contemporary Romanians living in the North of England, in parallel with the history of the Dacians in Britain, culminating in a community exhibition and event at Tullie House Museum, Carlisle in October. The project launched on 21 May and runs through to the end of the year. Our next event takes place in July, with a tour of Tullie House Museum, Carlisle where we will have the chance to handle Roman artefacts, and visit Birdoswald Fort on Hadrian’s Wall. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Institute of Classical Studies and supported by Tullie House Museum, Carlisle and the Romanian Cultural Institute, London.
How to take part
No experience of writing or film-making is necessary – just curiosity and enthusiasm! Together we will tell the story of parallel lives and journeys, in the past and present, through film, textiles, ceramics, food, photography and a video game, which will all feature in the exhibition and online event to be shown later in the year at Tullie House, and then in Manchester and London. Workshops will be held in Romanian and English and will be available online. Contributions are welcome in Romanian and/or English – all work will be translated into both languages. Participation is free and is open to anyone from a Romanian background living in the North of England who is over 18 years old. If you would like to take part, please write to us (in Romanian or English) at daciansonthewall@gmail.com.