About Us

Who we are

The John Roberts Heritage Fund | Cronfa Dreftadaeth Telynor Cymru | Welshengeria Noyelus Kova is established with two objectives for furthering John Roberts’s 200-year legacy as a Welshman and Roma/Gypsy.

1. Shikawa Romanus is intended to preserve and keep alive what’s left the Welsh Roma/Gypsy language to all Roma for this and future generations.

2. A Welsh TRIPLE HARP scholarship is an award that acknowledges the cultural heritage of Wales’s national instrument to the identity and culture of Wales and beyond.

What we do

The John Roberts Fund is poised to step forward and establish a presence influencing projects by providing a platform for opportunities that fit the two strands of John Roberts life as a Welshman and Roma/Gypsy.

John Roberts
About John Roberts

The Roberts family were well known in their locality of North Wales, not just as nomadic musicians but also as a Roma/Gypsy family who were fiercely proud of their Romany culture. John Roberts was fluent in Welsh, English and the pure form of Romany (Kale) that persisted in the remoter areas of Wales.

However, John Roberts was also proud to be a Welshman and for him the Welsh triple harp and its repertoire of traditional music took him into leading circles performing for European royalty and Queen Victoria. Thus, it was that he became a leading figure not only amongst scholars of the Romany culture but also amongst the newly emerging movement that was taking an interest in traditional music.

Shikawa Romanus
About Shikawa Romanus | Learning Romany

Shikawa Romanus is a unique glimpse into Welsh Romani culture and history using the chib – language of Welsh Romani as it is lived. It is neither a dictionary nor is it intended as an academic exercise.

These recordings of Shikawa Romanus is the chib – language that was taught to Bob Lovell as he worked side by side with his father - cutting hay and attending to horses. Adolphus spoke in Romanus to his son. Bob says, “I was hearing Romanus in the original oral tradition, not from books.”

Our Values
Our Values
  • We believe the ethnicity of Romani and our language is important to our human rights, because without language, identity and culture is lost.
  • The Triple Harp is essential to Welsh cultural identity. We believe in extending John Roberts’s 200-year musical legacy we are preserving a lasting heritage for future generations.
Recognition
Recognition and Awards

Bob Lovell Kamulo is a seasoned performer and award winning singer/songwriter. The producer is Frances Roberts Reilly, a BBC trained award-winning documentary filmmaker. The e-book is edited by Joel Therrien, PhD. Shikawa Romanus is professionally recorded at Manuka Studios in Orewa, New Zealand by sound engineer Mike McCarthy.

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