People Library

Standing on the shoulders of others

We all face adversity in our lives at some point, but everyone responds differently to it. Often it’s our internal perspective that shapes outcomes to the challenges we face. Equality is a human right, yet for so many people both throughout history and in our present day, inequality is the everyday reality instead.

Jamaican-born Lorna James, part of the Windrush generations has faced inequality throughout her life, yet her deep strength and resolve have allowed her not to just overcome but also to succeed in life. Her energy has always been focused on building a better future, rather than being held back by her negative experiences.

She arrived in Bradford in 1963 at the age of fourteen, and has consistently faced racism both personally and professionally.  As she shares her journey, you realise that her sense of self is rooted in a belief system deeper than emotions or thoughts, and it’s those inner values that have made her the inspiring lady she is today.

Lorna credits her grandmother and the local district nurse as her two main influences which set her on the path she’s forged in life, and gave her the internal foundations she’s built upon despite the surrounding challenges. 

Speaking about her childhood on the island of Jamaica, she explains, “Life was very similar to here in the UK.  Days revolved around school, household chores, sports clubs, homework and family. It wasn’t until the holidays when we got to socialise and go to the beach.” Addressing the stereotypical view of Jamaica as a party island, she says, “Yes, we are a happy people, but we have a serious side too.”

Lorna’s mum moved to the UK without her when Lorna was eleven years old, part of the Windrush generations who sought better opportunities by responding to the call for help from the British government, to rebuild the UK after the Second World War. Many worked in construction, manufacturing, public transport and the NHS.

Explaining Caribbean culture, Lorna says, “In Jamaica, grandparents take on the role of mothers, so I was well taken care of by Mama and Papa and I wasn’t distressed about my mum leaving, I didn’t suffer in any way.” It was three years before she saw her mother again.

Describing her key life influences, Lorna says, “My Grandma passed on all of the important life values to me from an early age; one of faith and believing in God, making sure you’re kind and helpful to everyone and being respectful to people no matter who they are or how old they are.”  Her grandmother led by example and had a strong work ethic. Every morning she’d leave the house at 6.30am to prepare food for the local boarding school students. “She used to say to me ‘work hard to be the best you can be’. And so I have, I’ve always worked hard.”

Her second key life influence is ‘Nurse Henry’, the school nurse and district midwife. “She had this black bag,” says Lorna, with a warm smile. “I’d say to her ‘Nurse, what have you got in your bag?’, and she’d reply, ‘A baby.’ Then she’d go into a local house and after a short while there was a baby crying inside, so I strongly believed that there was a baby in her black bag, and I too wanted to carry babies in a black bag!” So by the age of fourteen, Lorna was determined to pursue a nursing career, but Latin was compulsory in Jamaica and she hated it.  After discovering it wasn’t compulsory in the UK, she got on a plane to join her mother in Bradford. 

“I remember arriving into Bradford one evening and it was dismal. It was getting dark, it was cold and all this smoke was coming from the rooftops, I thought their houses were going to burn down, not realising that people were just trying to keep warm,” she chuckles. “We didn’t need to do that in the Caribbean!” 

“I cried all the time, thinking ‘why have I left my beautiful island to come and live in a refrigerator!’. There was ice on our windows and the food was different, you couldn’t tell anyone was cooking because there was no smell to it,” she says, comparing British and Jamaican cooking.

The other challenge she soon faced was people’s attitudes. “I know for the first immigrants the reception was very frosty, there was all this ‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish’. And the Teddy Boys were around, so if you weren’t careful you’d get assaulted or spat on.”

Remembering life as a young teenager, she says, “We used to go out in numbers because we were afraid of getting assaulted and the looks you got were…” She pauses. “…Although I didn’t experience this myself, friends of mine were asked about having a tail. It was really uncomfortable, you know. You’re a human being.” 

Her grandmother’s values and faith played a big part in Lorna’s resilience as she entered the NHS. “In 1968 I began my nurses training in Dewsbury. There were only four black colleagues on the course, and I knew that I was disadvantaged. I was seen as different because of the colour of my skin.”

Recalling her training, she says, “It wasn’t easy, but nothing was going to stop me from reaching my goal. I was always given the worst jobs. The first ward was a nightmare. I was allocated the sluice. Every morning of the week, it was my job to measure the vomit and sputum.” She pauses to let the information sink in. “Others were fighting to bed, bath, medical or comb hair – not me, every morning was spent in the sluice.”

After three years of training, she qualified as an SRN (State Registered Nurse) and then continued on to do midwifery. “I thought things would change after qualifying, but I ended up getting the most difficult cases. You know the ladies with prolonged labour, who had posterior positions, the ones you had to really work with. But I turned my disadvantage into an advantage, because irrespective of how complicated their labour was, I was able to deliver the baby, and so I became very skillful.”  She continues, “I knew that I had to get that knowledge, because knowledge was powerful. I’ve seen it work so many times because when other midwives had questions, they would say ‘Go see Lorna, she’ll be able to tell you’.”

Throughout Lorna’s career, she’s delivered over 1,000 babies (of those only two were black) and she says her passion was to always provide the best birthing experience for mothers and families in her care. “I really didn’t see the point of all that screaming and carrying on. My plan was to continually improve the birth experience and quality of midwifery, so they could realise their dreams,” she says.

“It’s the miracle of life, and it was such a privilege to be part of something so absolutely wonderful and to touch so many lives. Mothers entrust their baby’s life, and to some extent their own, to a stranger. You become part of the family and witness all these emotions, like joy, relief, gratitude and wonder.”

She always championed new methods to create tranquil and gentle birthing environments. During her 45 years as a midwife, she led the home birth team, implemented team midwifery and also set up the midwife-led unit which allowed midwives to work autonomously, and resulted in an NHS modernisation award. She was also voted ‘Midwife Of The Year’ from readers of Parenting Magazine, after the care she showed to one of her patients.

All this achievement, despite the racism she faced. “I’ve cried and I’ve cried and thought, ‘should I go to work today?’, but I turned up, you know, and then went home and cried again.” She continues, “It took me ‘til the 80’s to realise what was happening and give it a name, but it was just such a standard way of doing life for me. It’s not easy when you’re made to feel lower than others.”

The quotes are:

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight but they were toiling upward in the night.”

     –   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Don’t quit.”  

– Unknown

I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help.” 

– Psalm 121, The Bible

“This woman is not for turning”

– Margaret Thatcher

You get a sense of Lorna’s fortitude and values when you learn that alongside work and family commitments, she also served for thirty-five years as a Magistrate and completed a law degree in her spare time.

“I didn’t want to be a ‘black magistrate’, but a magistrate for all the people, to serve my community, equity throughout.” She continues, “There’s an element of responsibility. My approach was always to ask ‘what’s the best outcome for this individual?’. My job was to follow the guidelines and law, but even if someone is found guilty, they still deserve to be respected.”

Now retired, Lorna has chosen to give back to her elders and runs a community group for African Caribbean elders and carers. “They paved the way for us,” says Lorna. “I feel I’m standing on their shoulders and want to give back to them. I like to make people feel valued, cared for and loved. That’s very special to me. What would be the purpose of life if you didn’t have someone who cared for you, who made you happy? As they get older and family members move away and possibly lose partners, they’re isolated and a lot of them are lonely. So instead of them being at home by themselves, we provide somewhere for them to come for friendship, exercise, food, games and skill development.” It’s a wonderful, vibrant community and because of this, has won awards.

It’s often said that, as humans, we have the capacity for both good and evil. The question then, is what shapes or influences these sides in us. Lorna has experienced over and over again the joy of new life, potential and opportunities, but also the hurt and pain we inflict on ourselves and others.

In her experience, our ‘good side’ is nurtured within families, community, faith and intergenerational relationships. She feels that in some ways we’re losing that in society, through greed and a lack of respect and core values. However, she is immensely proud of Bradford and the potential within it. “Bradford is so cosmopolitan. The talent, oh, my goodness. There’s so much. We will work together and we will succeed together.”

“When it comes to racism, it stems back from colonialism and it definitely still exists today. I’ve seen it in hospitals, where doctors from other countries are treated appallingly. However, I think there’s a shift coming, but I think it will only happen when black history is taught in schools. Young people need to know the truth.”  She continues, “We have to co-exist. I’m hoping there won’t be this division, that you won’t see people as black and white, just people of value.”

Her final advice. “Make sure that you know what your goal is. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it and surround yourself with good people. Be humble, be respectful, stay where your passion is and things will work out.”

People Library

Out of sight, out of mind.

“There’s good and bad in us all, but Gypsy Travellers get painted with the one brush…”

A huge part of our identities as human beings is our individual culture and heritage, it shapes what we value and influences our approach to life. As time passes and society evolves these cultural identities are often challenged and threatened, each generation is given the responsibility to protect, teach and uphold them for the future.

Dublin-born Kathleen is full of warmth and strength. A Bradford resident and Irish Traveller, she’s incredibly proud of her heritage and aspires to uphold her culture and traditions, “It’s how I was brought up and how I brought my children up, and now I’m trying to get my grandchildren on the same track,” she says.

She traces her roots back to County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland, but Yorkshire has always been a massive part of her life. “I grew up on the roadside. We’d stay in Yorkshire in the winter, but then we’d move around all over the country in the summertime; the Midlands, Scotland, Wales, but we’d always come back to Leeds or Bradford in October, as long as it was Yorkshire.”

“There were no phones when I was growing up, so when my father decided it was time to shift, we’d just head to somewhere like Birmingham and find someone we knew,” She recalls the excitement of reuniting with friends from previous years and the joy of a community where “everybody mixed.”

Her upbringing was bursting with community, family, culture and food. “My mother always had a fire going, cooking outside in big black pots, hearty food such as bacon and cabbage, bacon ribs and stew,” she continues, “It’s all proper food and everybody would come over when they smelled our food,” she says, with a smile.

To this day, Kathleen carries on this value of generosity and hospitality, always preparing more than enough food to share with her community. “Anyone elderly we feed, I send dinner up and down everywhere. I don’t have a plate left because most of them don’t come back. So now I’ve bought them all plastic plates to send them up.” It’s clear that this camaraderie is a key influence in forming such close-knit Traveller communities.

There’s a deep sense of communal living in both Kathleen’s home and the site she lives on, she explains, “We’re strong on family values, everyone keeps an eye out for everyone’s child and we take care of the older people, we’d never send them to care homes.”

As the youngest of twelve children, with ten brothers and one sister, she speaks fondly of her own childhood. “Day to day it was just nice, you know, we weren’t playing computer games like today. I was like a tomboy and we played out all the time. It was a better way of life and it was a healthier way of life.”

As travelling communities begin to settle more, she feels the children are missing out on experiencing a variety of life, and explains, “It’s not good for children to be cooped up. When you live roadside you mix with different cultures, it helps to teach morals.”

By the age of eighteen, her parents had stopped travelling and chose to settle in London. “They haven’t been on the roadside since. When you’re settled it’s a different way of life but you never forget the traveller’s life. As long as you have food and water, you don’t need nothing else.”

Another cornerstone of the Gypsy Traveller community is the skill of self-reliance and problem solving. “Travellers are self-taught, you know what I mean, they don’t go to colleges. You just do whatever you put your mind to.  I want every traveller to have the chance to provide for themselves.”

She explains how boys begin working like men aged thirteen, and by seventeen they’re ready to go and do their own thing, “so long as they get a licence and a real motor they get up and go.”

For girls though, there were different expectations. “When I was growing up, girls didn’t leave home, they stayed at home to get married.” She reminisces, “When I got up in the morning, my routine was to make a cup of tea for my parents, then wash through the cans (milk churns) and windows outside. It was different to the boys, because I had to do the housework.”

Kathleen moved back to Yorkshire when she was nineteen years old to get married. Sadly, her husband died aged only twenty-eight, leaving her to raise their children on her own. “I’ve never considered getting re-married. I don’t think anyone would have looked down on me or anything because I was young and had young children, but they’ve got more respect for me now.”

Kathleen then explains the importance in the community of keeping loved ones’ memories alive and shares how they value life and death in equal parts. “We mention everyone we’ve lost everyday, so they’re not forgotten about. My brother died forty-five years ago and we talk about him every day.”

Once a year, Kathleen visits a cemetery in Ireland, underscoring these values. “It’s a respect thing. All our ancestors are buried there. People come from all over Ireland and England on one specific day, and we all stand by their graves – it’s like a blessing.” She continues, “Our people belong to us, when they die they’re more important than when they were alive.”

Bradford is renowned as a space of sanctuary and safety, welcoming communities across the world to make it their home. For centuries, the vibrant tapestry of Bradford has been woven together with the diverse threads of the Irish Traveller community, whether it has been a pit stop for those who embody a nomadic lifestyle, or somewhere to call home. When asked about her own experience, she says, “It’s like home. I’ve been here since I was 5, I’m 57 now, so 52 years I’ve lived between Leeds and Bradford.”

Kathleen lives on the Mary Street site in Bradford, designated for the Gyspy Traveller community. “We used to stop here years ago when I was about eight. It was a potato yard and it was all built up, all along here there were shops and public houses, whereas now it’s all gone and it’s industrial.”

“Since then they’ve opened up a sand quarry across the way, and a tip behind us.” Like many in Kathleen’s community, a prevailing sentiment of being overlooked persists. “No one can see us because we’re blocked in these walls and we’ve got enough cameras, we’re like being on ‘Big Brother’,” which seems to perpetuate her feeling of being out of sight and out of mind.

Explaining the history of where she lives, she says, “This site to start with was looked into for a housing estate and they said it wasn’t fit for humans to live, but yet they could make a traveller site on it – so what is the difference? The fact that this site is managed by environmental health tells me everything.”

She continues, “We’re full of sand twenty four seven, everybody on this site has got issues with their chest breathing. You can’t breathe in the night, it’s like you’re choking because of the sand” and then the additional impact of living behind a garbage facility, “we’ve got flies everywhere, it’s not nice when you’re eating.”  

She’s concerned, and so are other families and parents, for the future wellbeing of their children.There have been positive talks about moving the site and it probably will happen at some stage but not for a few years yet.

The multicultural nature of Bradford is one of the main reasons Kathleen has been able to call Bradford home for so long, because she feels more welcome here amongst other minority groups than in other parts of the country.

For example, the Asian community, “Indians and Pakistanis, they’re tret like us. They understand our way of life and we understand theirs. This town is full of lots of cultures and they’re more comfortable with us than, say, the white community. Some don’t understand us and just think ‘ah, it’s the stinking gypsies’.”

On one hand, society is becoming more accepting and inclusive of previously excluded minority groups, yet on the other it is seemingly trying to erase a way of life for the Traveller community. “We don’t want to change anything. We just want to get on with the life that we’ve always led,” Kathleen says.

A charity worker who works alongside Kathleen and the Gypsy Traveller community says, “In my 20-year career of working with some of the most marginalised communities, I can honestly say that the Gypsy Traveller community face the worst discrimination and racism. I would like to say that they have also been the most welcoming and inspiring to me in my work in challenging people’s inaccurate views and perceptions.”

Kathleen then shares numerous instances of discrimination and stereotyping she has encountered as an Irish Traveller and how she’s always had a feeling of being an unwanted outsider in society, “There’s good and bad in us all, but we all get painted with the one brush,” she says.

Unjust stereotypes brand Travellers as thieves that “live in a jungle and run around with no shoes on”. There is a real sense of persecution and fear within the community. Kathleen describes feelings of being unsafe and vulnerable as soon as she leaves the site, creating a feeling of never truly belonging.

She believes media representation is partly to blame for reinforcing stereotypes and failing to acknowledge the community’s positive actions. Her community’s charitable support for vulnerable people in society go unnoticed, such as large country-wide donations to food banks and children’s hospitals.

“It’s disheartening that our positive efforts rarely receive recognition; the spotlight always seems to be on the negative aspects of our community,” says Kathleen. One shining light however is the boxer Tyson Fury. “He’s pushing all the limits and he knows where he comes from. Every traveller, it doesn’t matter what they’ve got, they don’t lose their morals, they want to keep their culture,” she says. “He’s just like us, he’s all about his family.”

Preserving Traveller tradition is important for Kathleen, particularly due to external influences threatening the continuity of her rich, cultural heritage, but at the same time Kathleen recognizes the need to modernise, specifically in education and work.

Kathleen says, “I never went to school when I was a child because I’m telling you we were roadside. Here today, gone tomorrow.” However, when she became a parent, ensuring her own children received an education became a priority. “I think everyone should have the right to read,” she says.

Another cultural shift Kathleen has been part of, is supporting her daughter into further education and now championing her choice to go to work. “It’s only in the last ten years this has happened,” Kathleen explains. “Before that women didn’t work, they didn’t leave home. They done what had to be done at home, like housework. They looked after the younger ones or whatever.” There are still many women in the community that don’t work, but more and more women are going out to find a vocation, and Kathleen feels it’s a good trend. 

As Kathleen passionately shares her life as a Traveller, although some aspects of culture are changing, it’s clear that nothing will ever change her identity. The strength of the community is in how they value and look after each other and pass on their traditions from generation to generation.

However, she feels the world around her is becoming less tolerant of her way of life, trying to brush this traditional way of living out of sight, and out of mind. “It’s a culture and I don’t think they’ll ever stop it, but they’re doing their best to try,” she continues “You can’t think you’re better than anyone else, we’re all the same. It’s not right to look down on someone else.”

Conversation must be had to create positive social change and support greater understanding of the Gypsy and Traveller communities and unite in the face of inequality. Bradford and our wider society have an opportunity to challenge perceptions and be open to understanding the Traveller way of life. Surely we can find a way to live alongside each other, celebrating our differences, looking at those with a different way of life and thinking about how society can champion their cherished traditions. 

Story co-written by People Library Mentee Nathan McGill and Storyteller/Mentor Tom Harmer

Photos by Nathan McGill