Family fun day to celebrate Windrush contribution

The Telford African & Afro-Caribbean Resource Centre (TAARC) is putting on the event between midday and 4pm on Sunday, at Hadley Learning Community on Waterloo Road.

Windrush Day took place last month, on June 22, but the event has been arranged for after lockdown restrictions were lifted.

It will feature live entertainment, including a steel band, folk singer and community dancing, as well as a barbecue with jerk chicken and other Caribbean food.

There will be outdoor games and activities based on the Windrush era, including ludo, dominoes, egg & spoon and potato sack races and snakes and ladders, with prizes and goodies for those who take part.

Natalie Headley, a founder of TAARC, said they were delighted to be holding the event, which plays an important role in celebrating the contribution of the Windrush generation.

The Windrush generation is the name given to people who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries.

The name refers to the ship MV Empire Windrush, which docked in Tilbury on 22 June, 1948, bringing workers from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands, to help fill post-war UK labour shortages.

The name Windrush has been thrown into the public spotlight due to the Home Office scandal in 2018 where it was uncovered that people were wrongly deported, detained, lost jobs or homes, had passports confiscated or were denied benefits or medical care.

Mrs Headley said this weekend's event, would include information, pictures and stories of some of the Telford Windrush generation.

She said: "I think the celebrations of Windrush Day in 2018 sparked this new interest, people wanting to know their culture, their identity and about the Windrush generation because of the lack of knowledge and people coming to realise that the generation came to help build this county after the Second World War."

She added: "It is about knowing what these people have offered and brought to the country and celebrating that."