The breadth and depth of the Hackney community was reflected in the pupils, parents, teachers, educationists and elders who came together to launch the resource pack Living Under One Roof- Windrush and Beyond. It was a unique event joining together 60 years of experience in a celebration that shows how far the Caribbean community has come in the UK, from Tilbury to the House of Lords.

The pack is a unique collection of memory, containing the stories, sounds and images of the first mass Caribbean migration. Baroness Howells paid tribute to the elders of Hackney, all now in their 80’s, who attended the event. She recalled the journey made to the ‘mother’ country to fulfil dreams and to help build Britain after the devastation of the Second World War. Baroness Howells remembered the values that the first ‘visible’ migrants carried to England in their leather ‘grips’ - aspiration, hope, self sufficiency and resilience. Parents, pupils and staff from Lauriston Primary School projected the vibrancy of the ‘stove on the landing era’, with their scripted extracts of a play by Norma Hewins, showing that we still have much to learn from the gifts brought by this generation of explorers. De Beauvoir School children in their work with the elders have contributed to a unique collection of reflections that conjured up the dreams of snow and the reality of the struggle, to establish community.

The work with the elders has enabled the children to access a wisdom that has never perished but is sometimes forgotten. The discussion on community cohesion, led by Baroness Amos, showed that to create greater unity we must have an understanding of past and the channels of talk between generations and each other. In stimulating the partnership that produced the resource pack, Lorna Holder through her work with the elders to create the documentary ‘Living Under One Roof’ shows that ‘Windrush’ is a model for generating community cohesion.

View photos from the Windrush and beyond - community cohesion in our image gallery here...