The GRTHM.scot website features an outline of Scotland’s Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community and highlights several community events which have taken place in recent years.

Some Scottish Travellers identify as Nawken. The GRTHM.scot website offers a description of this term:

“There is no fixed or settled spelling of Nawken, which reflects its origin in an oral tradition, the Cant, one of the languages of Nawken. Other forms of this word include: Naken, Nacken, Naggen, Naggin, Nagin, Nakkin, Nargen, Noggen and Norken. Translations of these terms from the Cant have been given as ‘myself’ and ‘no home’.”

“Why I think self-defining as ‘Nawken’ will help reduce depression rates…” is a blog post by Davie Donaldson which explains how self-definition can be an effective way of responding to cultural trauma.

To find out more about Nawken support networks, political advocacy, and cultural preservation, visit Nawken.com.

• In 2025, we held a Knowledge Exchange with Davie Donaldson from Progress in Dialogue on how heritage organisations can support Scottish Travellers. This recording provides solid historical context, personal story telling, as well as multiple examples of ways heritage organisations can actively stand against the systemic oppression of Scottish Travellers.
• Find out more about Scottish Cant, the language specific to Scottish Gypsy Traveller or Nacken people on Friends, Families and Travellers’ website.
• Aila Shafer’s article, Brushing off the bias: depictions of Scotland’s Gypsy Roma and Traveller Community provides an important overview of how the narratives surrounding this community has been obscured and romanticised by external eyes in the Visual Arts sector.
• In 2021, we held a Knowledge Exchange on how museums and galleries can engage with the Roma community. This event also led to a follow-up blog by Leo and Blanka from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Scottish Heritage project.
• The Tinkers’ Heart in Argyll & Bute is the only physical monument to Traveller communities in Scotland. In 2016, Historic Environment Scotland published a detailed report on the history of this monument and its significance to Traveller communities.
• The Travellers Times media site has an entire section dedicated to Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller heritage. The site also features a story on Auchindrain’s GRTHM2023 commemorations.
• The Historic Environment Scotland website has a series of blog posts on the history of the GRT community in Scotland.
• As with all non-material cultural traditions which are actively practiced in Scotland, GRT community traditions are an important element of our Intangible Cultural Heritage. Janos Lang, a member of Roma cultural advocacy group Ando Glaso, spoke on this topic at a 2023 event on Intangible Cultural Heritage.
• Museums and galleries in Scotland may have paintings of the GRT community in their art collections, but these paintings often obscure and romanticise this community, as explained in an article by Aila Schafer on ArtUK.
• This article by Applecross Heritage Centre highlights the history of the Traveller communities in their area.

Museums and galleries have also created and shared digital resources which relate to Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller history:

• The history and contents of the Traveller camp at the Highland Folk Museum are highlighted in this interactive map of the museum site. The museum has also created a 3D scan of a tin lantern from their collection.
• Members of the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community are featured in many of the photographs in the Gordon Shennan collection at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.
• Auchindrain’s website includes blog posts on the history, stories, and traditions of the local Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community.

There are also examples of exhibitions relating to Gyspy, Roma, and Traveller history which we recommend visiting in person:

• Auchindrain Township is doing work to become a safe space to celebrate Scottish Gypsy Traveller Culture. Their current exhbition, What they’re lossin’ is part of that work.
• The Travellers’ Voice exhibition at Perth Museum.