Katarina Taikon-Langhammer (29 July 1932 – 30 December 1995) was a Swedish Romani activist, leader in the civil rights movement, writer and actor, from the Kalderash sub group.

[3] They adopted the surname Taikon as it was already common in Romani communities, allowing them to avoid revealing they had recently immigrated.

[3] During Taikon's childhood Romani still lived in camps in Sweden, and had to move often, which made it hard for the children to get any school education.

Through her tireless work, debating, writing and talking to Swedish authorities, the Romani were granted the same right to housing and education as all other Swedes.

In 1967 she successfully worked to convince the Swedish government to allow Italian and Polish Romani refugees to remain in Sweden.

[10] After fruitless efforts to help a group of 47 French Romani gain asylum in Sweden, she decided to change her strategy.

The only way to end the prejudices against her people was to address the young, she realized, so she started to write her popular series of children's books about her own childhood, called Katitzi.

[12] Her sister Rosa later wrote: the terrible injustices of which the Gypsies have for centuries been the victims, with the result that my generation and those which preceded it were deprived of all civil rights, might have continued in our country if, around 1960, Katarina Taikon had not decided to combat prejudice and racism in all its forms, She wrote books and countless newspaper articles, approached prime ministers, the Government, Parliament and all the political parties.

[12] The books aimed to illustrate the struggles Romani children and communities faced as a result of systemic societal and legal discrimination.