1950s - Voices of Hackney Caribbean Elders

This Research Resource will help families, teachers, and students to learn more about the Windrush generation, particularly the experiences of Caribbean elders who settled in Hackney, London in the 1950s. The resource includes four pages of individual oral history accounts of Caribbean elders. Suitable for age code: 11+Subjects: Social History, Citizenship, Drama, and Media Studies.

Black parents at home can use the resource to help educate their children further about their heritage, giving them a better sense of identity and belonging. Parents from diverse communities can use it to find similar values and shared experiences. This resource is firmly rooted in the tradition of oral storytelling. Teachers can use it in the classroom to support drama studies and create unique stage performances.

In 2008 Tuareg Production produced a series of workshops in Hackney, interviewing some of Hackney’s Caribbean elders from islands including Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia, Dominica, and Trinidad. The workshops were held at the Marie Lloyd Day Centre, William Morris Caribbean Centre, Hackney Museum, and the Hackney Caribbean Elderly Organisation. The elders reminisced and shared experiences from as early as 1954 when they first settled in the area. Their recollections and memories form the basis for the adaption of the Living Under One Roof stage play, set in Hackney by Lorna Holder. Hackney Museum, in 2008 did an exhibition, Living Under One Roof, Windrush, and Beyond, which covered all aspects of life for the first generation of Caribbean migrant workers. Finally, the Living Under One Roof – Windrush and Beyond education resource pack for primary schools in Hackney, launched at a prestigious event at the House of Lords hosted by prominent peers Baroness Amos and Baroness Howells, produced by The Hackney Learning Trust and Lorna Holder.