What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current life, award winning
documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in Yorkshire. For generations, all
the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the
mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father
was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge
University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people from communities like my
dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting
very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether. Among those people were the
'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses
used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and
closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to be a very popular free festival
at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the
convoys. Two of the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my
dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were arrested at
Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 – that's why they called me
Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was
little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so
they joined this strange alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual circus things – just human
performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat. We went to lots of music festivals
and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an outsider. In some places people were really hostile. There was no need
for this; everyone in our circus was very gentle and very honest. People are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early
experience that made me interested in how society treats minority groups. I doubt I'd be so interested in social exclusion if I hadn't
experienced it. It has been the subject of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and made peace with their families.
We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to have my own bedroom and eat normal food like cornflakes at my
cousin's houses. When I started school I could read and juggle much better than the other kids – and my knowledge of European
geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't have known so much at that age if my parents had been more
conventional.
*Stonehenge is a 5,000 year old monument in southern England. Summer Solstice (21 st June) is the longest day of year in the northern
hemisphere. On the Summer Solstice the sun is aligned with the stones so that light shines through the arches at dawn. Druids still go to
Stonehenge on 21st June to celebrate the summer solstice.
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current life, award winning
documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in Yorkshire. For generations, all
the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the
mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father
was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge
University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people from communities like my
dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting
very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether. Among those people were the
'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses
used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and
closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to be a very popular free festival
at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the
convoys. Two of the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my
dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were arrested at
Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 – that's why they called me
Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was
little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so
they joined this strange alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual circus things – just human
performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat. We went to lots of music festivals
and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an outsider. In some places people were really hostile. There was no need
for this; everyone in our circus was very gentle and very honest. People are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early
experience that made me interested in how society treats minority groups. I doubt I'd be so interested in social exclusion if I hadn't
experienced it. It has been the subject of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and made peace with their families.
We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to have my own bedroom and eat normal food like cornflakes at my
cousin's houses. When I started school I could read and juggle much better than the other kids – and my knowledge of European
geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't have known so much at that age if my parents had been more
conventional.
*Stonehenge is a 5,000 year old monument in southern England. Summer Solstice (21 st June) is the longest day of year in the northern
hemisphere. On the Summer Solstice the sun is aligned with the stones so that light shines through the arches at dawn. Druids still go to
Stonehenge on 21st June to celebrate the summer solstice.
