Essential Information
| Type | Events and festivals |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Date and Times | Saturday 21 June 2025 | 11am - 4pm |
| Prices | Free |
HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Britain on 22 June 1948. On board were more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean.
Each year the National Maritime Museum partners with local communities to celebrate Caribbean culture and the legacy of the Windrush generation in the UK today.
This year we are excited to be joined by the Caribbean Social Forum who are delivering Games Without Wires, The National Windrush Museum who will be hosting a discussion with author Shani Akilah, and the Migration Museum, who will be taking over the ReThink Space with drop-in activities, story sharing and self-guided boat making.
See the programme below, and keep an eye on this page as more details are added.
Programme
Click on an activity to learn more, or scroll down to explore everything that's happening. More activities will be added soon.
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Migration Museum pop-up: story sharing
11am-4pm | Drop-in | ReThink space
Join the Migration Museum team to add your migration story to our collection and be a part of shaping the story of how migration shapes Britain.
The Migration Museum has a collection of over 7,000 migration stories shared with us on hand-written discs by visitors to the museum over the past 10 years. Whether your story starts with ‘I migrated here’, ‘one of my grandparents migrated here’ or perhaps ‘someone in my family emigrated from here’, we would love for you to leave as few or as many words as you’d like!
Many of our discs tell stories of the Windrush generation, and we will bring some of these along on the day for visitors to learn from. We hope to add to this collection and particularly encourage anyone with stories of themselves or family who have untold stories to come along. The Empire Windrush carried passengers of Caribbean, Polish and East Asian descent - do you have more stories to share with us?
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Migration Museum pop-up: make a boat!
11am-4pm | Drop-in | ReThink space
Drop-in for this self-guided boat-making activity! Relax on your own, chat with friends or the team, and have a go at crafting your own boat. The activity offers space to get creative, reflect on the journey many people made to Britain, and an opportunity to celebrate the vast and continuing impact that the Windrush generation has had on life in Britain for all of us.
Open and accessible to all ages and abilities.
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Before HMT Empire Windrush: the Almanzora
11am-4pm | Figurehead space in Ocean Court
An opportunity to view a model of this vessel and hear more about its 1947 journey from the Caribbean to Southampton, with Simon Stephens (Curator of Ship Models and Small Boats) and Helen Mears (Head of Curatorship and Research).
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Film screening: 'Here I Stand'
Ocean Court screens: silent subtitled screening | 11am-4pm
Group Space: screening with sound and subtitles | 11.30-11.45am and 12.20-12.35pm
Here I Stand is a personal account of a descendant from parents of the Windrush Generation, written, performed and narrated by Ionie Richards. She follows the footsteps of her parents, who made that journey from the Caribbean to England in the 1950s with hope and expectations. The work explores their loss, achievements and personal struggles to realise their dreams to make a new life for them and their children.
The stunning images of Tilbury Bridge Walkways of Memories, an art installation located on one of the walkways where passengers from the Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury, is used as a backdrop along with an evocative soundtrack.
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Talk: An introduction to Caribbean family history at the Caird Library and Archive
11-11.30am | Lecture Theatre
Discover original documents, books, maps and more held by the Caird Library and Archive that will expand the story of your Windrush family’s journey to Britain. The talk will cover searching for digitised items, getting the most out of the object, library and archive catalogues, and how to order items to see in person. We will also briefly discuss how to access passenger lists and Merchant Navy/crew list records.
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Workshop: Liming at the Museum
11am-1pm | Atlantic Worlds Gallery
From plantation inventories of slaves to letters written by Marcus Garvey, the National Maritime Museum has a variety of materials speaking to the deeply embedded and complicated relationship between Britain and the Caribbean.
Through a series of workshops led by Jeremiah Brown, Liming at the Museum offers Caribbean elders the opportunity to engage with the Museum's archive. Through poetry and storytelling, elders will speak on and shape the narrative of their history and heritage. This session will be a relaxed gathering in the Atlantic Worlds Gallery with music and activities. Come ready to lime, come ready to speak your mind.
Crafting: Shadow puppets
11am-1pm and 1.30pm-4pm | Learning Space
Get creative making your own shadow puppet.
Character actor: Pearl Morris
11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm | Voyagers Gallery
Meet Pearl Morris, a Caribbean woman who travelled to Britain in 1948 on the Empire Windrush, a passenger liner that brought one of the first large groups of post-war West Indians to the United Kingdom.
A matron of the Windrush generation, Pearl will tell you what life was like for a Caribbean woman in Britain in the 50s, and how she made this island her home.
Talk: Reflections on Windrush: An Evolving Narrative
11.45am-12.15pm (20-minute talk and 10-minute Q&A) | Lecture Theatre
The arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in 1948 marked a pivotal moment in British history. Among its passengers was Sam King, a former RAF engineer and World War II veteran, whose legacy includes coining the term 'Windrush generation' to describe the ‘492 Jamaicans’ who disembarked that day. Since then, the term has expanded in public consciousness to encompass a broader group of Caribbean migrants who arrived in Britain between 1948 and 1973.
This talk traces the evolving narrative of Windrush - from its symbolic beginnings to its contemporary significance - highlighting key moments that have shaped its meaning over time. It will also explore the idea of 'Windrush 100' and what it might represent as Britain approaches a century since that historic voyage.
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Tracing your ancestors: Caribbean family history workshop
11.45am-4pm | Caird Library and Archive
Come to the Caird Library and Archive for help getting started in your search for your family. We'll show you how to use the passenger lists digitised on Ancestry, various records from parish churches in the Caribbean, and crew lists and Merchant Navy records.
Staff will also provide suggestions on how to find family history records in archives across the UK. There will be maps, prints, drawings and rare books from the collection on display.
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In reflection with Griffi & Rosie: Looking back at their artist residency ‘Retelling Windrush’
12.35-1.10pm: Interview and Q&A | Lecture Theatre
"As the first artists-in-residence with the National Windrush Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich, we used the studio to explore the Windrush generation's legacy through art. Our work focused on amplifying community stories, creating a welcoming space for the Caribbean diaspora, and addressing the historical gap in representation. The studio became an organic archive of objects and memories, reimagining the Windrush experience through creative mediums."
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Windrush in song
1-2.30pm | Group Space
Come and relive songs from your homeland. From folk and gospel to reggae and calypso, sing songs from your childhood, songs that helped shape your life, songs that kept you in touch with home, or songs that encouraged you as you forged a new life in a ‘strange land’.
From Jim Reeves and Sam Cooke to Desmond Decker and John Holt, come and take a trip down memory lane with CeCelia Wickham Anderson.
Honouring the Windrush Generation Through Storytelling: In Conversation with Shani Akilah Hosted by the National Windrush Museum
1.30pm-2.30pm | Lecture Theatre
This session will explore intergenerational relationships between millennials and the Windrush generation, drawing on themes from Shani's award-winning short story collection For Such a Time as This.
Workshop: Navigating Representation - Past, Present, and Future
2.30-4pm | Group Space
Join us for an engaging and reflective workshop exploring the legacy of the Windrush Generation. Through personal stories, archival discoveries, and open discussion, we’ll examine how the Windrush narrative has been shaped—and how it might evolve.
Whether you have a personal connection or a passion for history, this is a space to listen, learn, and contribute to a more inclusive understanding of Britain’s Caribbean heritage.
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Film screening of 'Motherless Child' and Q&A
2.45-4.15pm | Lecture Theatre
Motherless Child is an epic panorama of sounds, images and song, created, choreographed and directed by Artist EVEWRIGHT to channel multiple stories of resilience, identity and determination from elders of the Windrush generation.
The intersection of land, water and the movement of people is symbiotic to its location within Tilbury Bridge Walkway of Memories, an immersive visual art installation which is the first site-specific art and sound created by Artist EVEWRIGHT, held at the Port of Tilbury in Essex and dedicated to people of the Windrush generation. The film’s sweeping views through the harsh industrial coastal landscape juxtapose imagery on the bridge and features Gary Cordice singing Motherless Child. The film provides a visual dialogue with poignant, emotional and personal audio stories. This production brings a new cinematic dimension to the art installation, claiming new spaces for marginalised voices to be heard and experienced.
The film runs for 72 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A.
About Evewright Arts: We are passionate to seek out, find and preserve untold Black British stories from the diaspora using visual arts. We value the importance of our community telling their stories in their own voice.
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Windrush stories and resources
What is Windrush Day?
On 22 June 1948, Caribbean migrants arrived in the UK on the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in Essex, their first stop before travelling towards London.
Many people from British Commonwealth countries travelled to the UK between 1948 and 1971, encouraged by the 1948 British Nationality Act that granted citizenship and right of abode to all members of the British Empire.
On arrival in the UK however, people were often met with racism, lack of acknowledgement of their professional skills and very different living conditions.
Windrush Day is a chance to celebrate British Caribbean communities, and acknowledge the sacrifices and contributions the Windrush generation and their descendants have made to British society.
The Windrush arrival marked a turning point, when Caribbeans came here to help re-build Britain, to work in the transport system, factories and the newly created NHS. So for those who had to overcome so much adversity, it has great significance”
Baroness Floella Benjamin
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