In 2018, the annual National Windrush Day was established by the Government with a £500,000 grant scheme to launch each year. The first scheme was launched in 2019.
Projects have taken place across England and have involved wide-ranging events and activities, such as art exhibitions, social media campaigns, drama performances and oral histories.
Below is a selection of the incredible materials that were created by some the 2021 recipients of the grant scheme.
Leicester Caribbean Cricket Club produced an oral histories publication booklet titled ‘Bringing a piece of home’, erected a commemoration plaque, and created educational resources to use during Black History Month. To celebrate Windrush Day, they ran a social media awareness campaign to promote the day, recognising and celebrating the stories, memories and contributions of local Windrush Generation members.
Bringing a Piece of Home
PDF, 4.7mb,
Evewright Arts Foundation
Evewright Arts Foundation opened the Tilbury Bridge Walkway of Memories. This installation was the first site-specific outdoor art and sound installation held at the Port of Tilbury dedicated to the people of the Windrush Generation. Tilbury Port is an iconic location with an historic significance to individuals from a black background. This artwork is a unique statement commemorating the lives of those people who came from the Caribbean who carried their British passports proudly as British citizens with hope and expectation. The installation launched on Windrush Day 2021.
EXHIBITION GUIDE: Tilbury Bridge Walkaway of memories
PDF, 2.7 MB, 06 Pages
492 Korna Klub
492 Korna Klub created The ‘Human Library’ which was a virtual intergenerational project working with 30 Windrush Generation volunteers who became ‘human open books’. These were accessed through four participatory online showcase events at four high profile public events in Lambeth, aimed at children, young people & new residents in Lambeth.
Advice Support Knowledge Information
Advice Support Knowledge Information created a booklet which brought together Pardner money stories and poems, alongside a selection of recipe tales from the Caribbean. They captured the experiences and memories of first-and-second generation Caribbean people from Croydon and Sutton.
PARDNER MONEY STORIES
PDF, 3mb, 24 Pages
African Caribbean Achievement Project
African Caribbean Achievement Project created an inter-generational oral history project that documented the real-life stories and experiences of first, second and third generation Windrush community members so as to permanently cross reference and archive this work. This was then shared for use as educational resources in UK schools and libraries.
Age UK Lambeth
Age UK Lambeth ran a workshop with Windrush Generation tradespeople and their descendants to produce a booklet documenting people’s experience, linking them to their contribution to the community through the work they undertook.
Booklet stories and profiles 9
PDF, 1mb, 24 Pages
Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality
Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality, as part of their celebrations, ran a children’s poetry competition with Reading Museum. Here are some of the entries from Jennett’s Park Primary School.
Windrush Day
PDF, 4mb, 31 Pages
Birmingham Museum Trust
Birmingham Museum created a range of resources including a learning pack for primary children to be used in Black History Month, supported by the digitisation of The Birmingham Black Oral History Project to make this publicly available. This included 276 new oral history recordings.
Fresh Arts CIC
Fresh Arts CIC recorded the testimonies of people who arrived in the UK as children and the stories of their experiences and achievements. The project gave insight into the motivations for and the effects of parental migration on participants and their experiences of integration in the UK. They were then shared with primary school children in the same age range via a learning pack.
COTWG Education Pack
PDF, 5mb, 36 Pages
Gravesham Borough Council
Gravesham Borough Council presented a recreation of the arrival of HMS Windrush on the LV21 lightship looking out onto Tilbury. They used 100 cut-out characters of local people that were arranged on the decks of the ship and their stories formed part of an exhibition celebrating their contributions.
Kaine Management
Kaine Management ran “Better Together”, an intergenerational programme, bringing youth and Caribbean seniors together to explore migration to the UK. They researched and recorded the experiences of seniors and compared these with young people who have migrated in the past 10 years to identify similarities and differences. Participants were encouraged to develop skills to use the internet and social media, and developed a web page, workshops, and project booklet which was launched in a celebratory event.
Leeds City College
Leeds City College ran a project bringing together 40+ ESOL and Special Educational Needs and Disability learners from Leeds with a Caribbean background through creative workshops, an intergenerational letter writing campaign and the co-creation of life story books for older adults from the Windrush generation. These life story books were presented back to individuals and their families at a celebratory event and shared digitally across their networks as an educational and archival resource.
Windrush Letters
PDF, 4mb, 24 Pages
Leicester City Council
Leicester City Council created five large vibrant Windrush interpretation panels to be permanently displayed at the African Caribbean Centre, commemorating the story of Windrush using archived material collected over the years. They also created an accompanying educational resource, providing more information about the pictures on the panels.
WR Event Panels Stage 6
PDF, 7mb, 6 Pages
London Stadium Learning
London Stadium Learning ran a series of research activities and creative workshops with young people in Newham that documented the legacy of Caribbean culture in Newham today through the production of soundscapes and photo stories.
National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum launched a project with four different strands for Windrush Day including the launch of a newly digitised Waterline photographic collection, working with the Caribbean Social Forum to create reminiscence packs to support individuals experiencing dementia and running a webinar to share learning.
Prime Theatre
Prime Theatre ran a regional project between educators, historians, and artists to create an online digital learning resource promoted through local radio. They also undertook teacher training and community activities across the summer and during Black History Month. Below are some of the educational resources they created.
Y5 6 Caged Bird
PDF, 800kb, 24 Pages
Y5 6 Still I Rise
PDF, 600kbs, 17 Pages
Y3 4 WPD Black History
PDF, 500kbs, 19 Pages
Prison Radio Association
Prison Radio Association worked with individuals with a Caribbean background to produce a new, enhanced Windrush Stories series of audio programmes which will tell the life stories of members of the Windrush Generation to 3 key audiences: existing subscribers, key stages 1, 2 & 3 in schools, and a broadcast on National Prison Radio.
WINDRUSH STORIES FOR SCHOOLS
PDF, 1mb, 20 Pages
State of Trust
State of Trust ran ‘WindRushHour’, a Caribbean music and dance participatory programme which was delivered to 13 schools & colleges and seven venues. The programme offered historical, social and cultural education to children and adults through workshops, performances, online classes and webinars. Visit their website to learn more about State of Trust and their work celebrating the contribution of the Windrush Generation and the British Caribbean community.
Strike a Light
Strike a Light created “I Remember When”, a magazine in celebration of the Gloucester Elders and the Windrush Generation. The project captured stories, created memories and celebrated history as well as the present. They also ran a celebratory event to share local experiences and educate the younger generation.
I Remember When Magazine
PDF, 4mb, 28 Pages
The Geffrye Museum Trust
The Geffrye Museum Trust ran a programme of events and workshops celebrating the culture and history of the Windrush Generation and their contribution to homes and homemaking in Hackney, inspired by a new 1970s room in the Museum galleries which shows a typical West Indian front room. This launched on Windrush Day with a digital celebration, including a conversation with the room’s curator, a karaoke jukebox and a live cook-along.
