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Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
Oral history recording with Novlet Gordon, born in 1958, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.
“Racism in some industry is not verbal, it’s silent… you read between lines…”
Novlet Gordon was born in 1958, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica.
“My family cultivated sugar cane and citrus, that is what I remember from my childhood… I have siblings, but my siblings was born here in England… I came in 1967… on BOAC, British Overseas Airways. [I was] nine.” “I came to Wales in 2000…I was happy when I came down here.”
“I did hairdressing for nearly 20 years… [then] I left hairdressing… I’ve always liked baking and things, I baked and I cook very well… I had a cafe, so I was self-employed for five years.”
“They wanted health care workers… I got a letter offering me an interview… I got the job. So I did my training as a mental health nurse… I worked in the NHS for nearly 25 years, until I became visually impaired.”
“I’m very clued up, although schooling here does not teach Black history, it never did. Black history needs to be incorporated… part of the curriculum.”
“Black people, been in England just as long as white people. It’s about learning to understand… it’s your religion, it’s your culture, it’s part of your tapestry.”
“I work as a support worker and I do some voluntary work now, I try to utilise my time.”
“Wales is beautiful, it’s a place to fall in love with… my grandchildren, they speak Welsh fluently.”
“You know, sometimes people, they oppress you so that you don’t excel… continue learning and do as much as I’m able to do to help others as well as myself…”
