This article is written by Petra Roberts, Cultural Development Manager at Hackney Council where she leads Hackney’s Windrush Engagement Programme, which was a Finalist and Runner Up in the Apolitical Team of the Year 2019 Awards for Championing Equality.

The shock of the Windrush scandal will never leave me, nor will the sense of shame I feel when I think about the time the story first broke in 2017. If you don’t already know the story, the Windrush scandal began to surface in 2017 after it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were from the “Windrush” generation — Caribbean workers who were invited by successive governments to relocate to Britain following a labour shortage to rebuild the country after World War II — had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights.

These tragic stories begged many questions, but none more so than this one: how on earth could this have happened to a generation that has given Britain so much?

For me, and many others, this became a very personal story. My dad is part of the Windrush generation and he tells me wonderful stories. He recently wrote a book about his early experiences in life so they could be passed on to my son. This planted a seed with me and influenced my work at Hackney Council.

We learn from the art of storytelling

Storytelling must be one of the most powerful ways to land a message through context, characters and emotional drivers. It has certainly served theatre well for many centuries.

My dad’s stories were in stark contrast to the ones I was reading about in the news: government statistics, immigration, boxes to tick, targets to hit and people to be deported.

His were about people’s lives and struggles. Survival. Making ends meet. Defying the odds. Overcoming adversity. Working hard to support the British economy, transport systems and health service. Celebrating life. Family bonds. Supporting one another. Community spirit. Music. Food — the most amazing food. Sport.

The stories I read about in the news were cold, heartless and shocking. My dad’s were warm, full of heart and hope, and most of all, inspiring. And they were personal. Real people. Real lives.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have the backing from the very top and across a council if you are to be successful in launching a new programme of work. It’s the collective work of politicians, officers and the community that delivers results

If former UK Government ministers and policymakers had been introduced to the history and heritage of the Windrush generation in the same way that I had, I would like to think that their attitude and decision-making would have been very different.

It is this lesson about the positive impact of storytelling through arts and culture that shaped our Cultural Hackney Windrush programme.

Celebrating our shared history

I am incredibly proud that Hackney Council made such a strong and public commitment to our Windrush community. We were the first to appoint a cabinet lead for the Windrush community and passed a comprehensive motion pledging support.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have the backing from the very top and across a council if you are to be successful in launching a new programme of work. It’s the collective work of politicians, officers and the community that delivers results.

Hackney has high numbers of older people from Black Caribbean origin and it is one of the most isolated communities, especially when you consider that 42% of older people in the borough live alone. We knew, reaching out to this community was going to be a real challenge.

But with a focus on storytelling through the celebration of history and heritage, we would quickly open the door to this previously “hard to reach audience”.

Sadly, prejudice and inequality still exists today, but we were taken back by the positive influence the elders had when sharing their stories with young people. There were some parallels, lots of respect, wisdom to impart and bags of inspiration and hope

We put in place a diverse range of arts and culture activities with the support of politicians, adult social care, housing teams, archivists, volunteers and local arts organisations to engage more than 3000 local elders.

This was all made possible because of two reasons. Firstly, the wholehearted commitment from across the council, and secondly, the real celebratory nature of the programme, co-produced drawing on the expertise of a steering group who administered microgrants that reached hyperlocal pockets of the community.

Our activities included carnival parades, a tea party with music, exhibitions and poetry, arts and photography exhibitions, cricket and domino matches, baking and the production of a Windrush cookbook with celebrity chef Liam Charles, partnerships with BBC London, and traditional Black media outlets such as The Voice and the Jamaica Gleaner; and, last but most certainly not least, school visits.

The story lives on

The programme has made us think harder about where to draw the lines in terms of where the Windrush generation starts and finishes.

The more we went into schools and the more we engaged with young people across a range of activities, the more we discovered how many of the younger generation are disconnected from their heritage.

Sadly, prejudice and inequality still exist today, but we were taken back by the positive influence the elders had when sharing their stories with young people. There were some parallels, lots of respect, wisdom to impart and bags of inspiration and hope.

As we look ahead, we will take even more of an intergenerational approach to the Windrush programme by taking on these learnings. The key one is that when engaging younger people, smaller and more intimate environments, like our baking sessions, work best.

I’d like to end with one statistic that came out of our evaluation.

One hundred per cent of participants said that they would share something they learnt about the Windrush generation with another person – that’s a form of storytelling and a real measure of success.

We stand on the shoulders of giants

So what is my biggest learning of all?

When I read that Black and Asian communities are potentially being the hardest hit by Covid-19, it drove home for me that storytelling has never been more important. We need to know their stories and want to protect them.

Everyone is talking about the removal of statues that have clear links to our history of enslavement. How we respond is no easy thing. It needs thought, consultation and community buy-in. One clear step we are taking is to install giant statues by artist Thomas J Price depicting people from the Windrush generation permanently in Hackney Town Hall Square. They are committed, uncompromising and a reminder to everyone who walks past — including our political leaders of today and tomorrow — how our Windrush generation has enriched Britain. — Petra Roberts

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(Picture credit: Unsplash)