rc101 dispatch: the ukrainianness of being roma.
lessons from the romani-ukrainian resistance the rest of free world needs to learn.
A clip from an interview with a Yanush Ohli, a Ukrainian-Roma fighter within the Ukrainian anti-imperial resistance. Watch in full, with auto-translated English captions, here.
On my travels to book shows and lectures, I always pick up a bunch of interesting books and meet fascinating people. Recently, I had a thought: what if I start sharing all of it with my subscriber family here? This is how the rc101 dispatch format became a thing. Let me know what you think, and whether it is of any value to you — via the chat link below.
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At the end of 2025, I had the honour to be invited to join the advisory board of a new Ukrainian civil society organisation, The Ukrainian Roma Advocacy Alliance (AURA). Founded by young Romani-Ukrainians, it is on a mission to fight anti-Gypsyism, empower the voices of the Roma organisations from Ukraine in European policy-making, and support Roma in Ukraine and Roma refugees from Ukraine abroad.
“We created AURA so that Roma voices — in Ukraine and beyond — would be heard clearly, professionally, and on equal terms with others. It’s about the right to be heard, about mutual support, and about a new standard of Roma advocacy in Europe,” as Nataliia Tomenko, one of the AURA founders, a Ukrainian human rights campaigner, an artist and my long-time friend, explained to me.
My role would be to help integrate the voices of Romani-Ukrainians from the Ukrainian resistance into the emerging defence effort to protect European democratic values and freedoms.
WHY HIGHLIGHTING ROMA VOICES OF THE UKRAINIAN RESISTANCE IS CRUCIAL
One of the key acts of anti-imperial resistance is to regain control of your own story. Become confident in telling everyone else who you are, where you come from, and what values you stand by. Romani Ukrainians are a daily testament to that.
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