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ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the depiction of Roma culture and history, including Roma genocide, in Estonian museums, on the example of three recent permanent exhibitions and a traveling exhibition. Inspired by the new museology principles, I discuss the silences concerning the Roma in memory institutions together with participation possibilities for Roma NGOs. I conclude that the depiction of Roma in permanent exhibitions is influenced by the lack of research (interest) and (knowledge about) materials, which is influenced by the conflict in collective memory about World War II and by the circulation of a false narrative of Roma not being a traditional minority in Estonia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. HT Linguistics professor Paul Ariste (1905–90), who also studied the Romani language, estimated that from 800–1,000 Roma, around 20 families survived (Silmaring Citation1989). Other estimations of murdered Roma are around 400–1,000 (Max Jakobson Commission Citation2006, xix) and 800–850 (Weiss-Wendt Citation2003, 48–9). Roma activist Roman Lutt has estimated, according to the memories of Roma, that there could have been around 3,000 Roma in Estonia before the war and more than 2,000 were killed. One can also find this number of victims on the memorial stone to Roma victims at the Kalevi-Liiva execution site. In a short documentary by Miriam Schwartz (Citation2006) about Roma Holocaust in Estonia it is stated that Ariste estimated the number of Roma in Estonia before World War II at around 5,000–6,000, but this estimate is not found in writings by Ariste.
2. HT The conversation took place in Tallinn on 13 August 2019.
3. HT The coordinating advisory body for Roma integration, the Roma Integration Council, was created in 2015 and meets twice a year. Its members also include two Roma NGO representatives. See also the webpage of the Ministry of Culture: https://www.kul.ee/kultuuriline-mitmekesisus-ja-loimumine/rahvusvahemused-ja-rahvuskaaslased/romade-loimumise-noukoda
4. HT As explained on the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory web portal on the Holocaust in Estonia (https://klooga.nazismvictims.ee), the Estonian History Museum opened an open-air exhibition, The Klooga camp and the Holocaust (curator Olev Liivik), prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia and the Jewish Community of Estonia. The Holocaust memorial at Klooga underwent extensive restoration in 2013.
5. HT The materials collected by Merle Karusoo for the integration project Who am I (2005) are archived in the Estonian Cultural History Archive: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum, Eesti Kultuurilooline Arhiiv (hereafter – KM EKLA), reg 2017/19.
6. HT Some stories of Roma genocide survivors have been recently published in a popular science article by Ross and Roht-Yilmaz (Citation2019).
7. HT The project is called Kogu Me Lugu and the title, as explained on the webpage (https://www.kogumelugu.ee/en), involves a word play so that it may be understood in various different ways: ‘Collect our story,’ ‘We’re collecting the story,’ or ‘Our entire story.’
8. HT KM EKLA, reg 2017/19. See also: Kroll Citation2002; Valdmann Citation2014; Schwartz Citation2006; Roht-Yilmaz, Ross, and Dabla Citation2021.
9. HT The rooms are named: ‘Before the birth of the Republic of Estonia;’ ‘Building the Republic of Estonia;’ ‘Life in the Republic of Estonia;’ ‘World War II and the End of Independence;’ ‘Life in the Soviet Union;’ ‘The Rebirth of the Republic of Estonia;’ ‘Life and Opportunities in a Young Republic;’ and ‘Contemporary Estonia.’
10. HT questionnaire, composed by the author, have been received by e-mail from Krista Sarv 26 March 2021. The main curators were Inge Laurik-Teder and Krista Sarv, but 20 additional curators were also involved. The general text on repressions was written by historian Olaf Mertelsmann.
11. HT The curator for this section, Sander Jürisson, remained unavailable for commenting on the making of the exhibition. Neither he nor other staff connected to the preparation of the exhibition work at the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom anymore (personal correspondence with the executive director K. Telve, 31 May 2021).
12. HT The exhibition Encounters was curated by over 40 experts of different fields from in- and outside of ENM. Curators of the subsection of the exhibition Journey in Time were Liisi Jääts, Terje Anepaio, Anu Järs, Reet Piiri, Kristel Rattus, and Ellen Värv.
13. HT Author’s e-mail correspondence with K. Rattus, 14 May 2019.
14. HT Author’s e-mail correspondence with K. Rattus, 14 May 2019.
15. HT Author’s e-mail correspondence with K. Rattus, 14 May 2019. Cf. Seljamaa Citation2021), 90.
16. HT For information on the ESTROM project (2018–19), ESTROM 2 (2019–20), and ESTROM 3 (2021–), see the project webpage: https://www.eestiromad.ee
17. HT Author’s e-mail correspondence with K. Rattus, 14 May 2019.
18. HT Author’s e-mail correspondence with K. Rattus, 14 May 2019.
19. HT The project manager Külli Lupkin was from the Estonian National Museum and external curators were Reena Purret, who defended her master’s thesis in 2014 at the University of Tartu on the preparation of the exhibition, and photographer Annika Haas.
20. HT In English, ‘Roma,’ is used in the title, where the Estonian uses instead ‘mustlased,’ this being the exonym for the Roma in Estonian, and may be translated as ‘Gypsy’ in English. The word must means both ‘black’ and ‘dirty’; therefore, although used by some Roma while speaking in Estonian, Roma NGO representatives prefer the word romad (pl.) be used instead. In Estonian society, romad is not yet well established; for example, at the exhibitions We, the Roma and at My Free Country, still use the term mustlased, while in the Encounters, romad has been used, with mustlased in parentheses. In this text, I use the word ‘Gypsy’ to refer to the stereotypical imagined Gypsy, the distorted image and idea of the Roma that non-Roma society has produced.
21. In Norway, Romani/Taters/Travelers (romanifolket/tatere, sometimes also reisende in Norwegian) denotes the community who arrived in Norway during the sixteenth century, while Roma denotes the groups who arrived since the nineteenth century. These two groups deriving from different migration waves officially are considered separate national minorities in Norway.
22. Author’s e-mail correspondence with representatives of ERFE and Valga Museum took place in 2016, and again in 2019–20.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eva-Liisa Roht-Yilmaz
Eva-Liisa Roht-Yilmaz is a PhD student at the Department of Ethnology, University of Tartu. Her research is concentrated on the religious and cultural identity of Roma in Estonia. In addition to research articles on Pentecostal mission among and by Roma, she has been active in raising awareness about the Roma in Estonia in cooperation with the Roma community and by writing popular science articles, doing voluntary work, and giving public lectures.