Jersey's Thai Community Creates Space to Celebrate

Dozens of people gathered at the Town Hall in St Helier on Friday for an event celebrating Thai culture in Jersey, thought to be the first of its kind on the island. Organisers brought the communities together around food, traditions, history and a traditional chant led with Buddhist monks invited from the UK. The gathering was organised by people in the community, including representative Dararat Lorimer and her neighbour Karolina Kierys.

A gathering organised locally

The event gave attendees a chance to eat Thai food and learn about the community’s traditions. The visiting monks spoke about Thailand’s history and helped lead a traditional chant. Those details formed the programme of a celebration that, according to Lorimer, marked the first time the Thai and Jersey communities had celebrated together.

Lorimer said the aim was to “bring future generations together”. Her account looked beyond the event itself: “Everyone knows, we talk about the past, we talk about the present and now we should think about the future,” she said. The gathering, then, was also a starting point for the activities she wants to organise next.

Lorimer said she plans to teach Thai, Thai cooking and Thai boxing. “We need to celebrate more of course to help make sure we continue to mix all together,” she said. The plans she named are practical ways to pass on language and skills, and to create more occasions for people to meet. She didn’t describe them as a finished programme; she said she plans to pursue them going forward.

A place for culture to continue

Kierys, who is originally from Poland and lives next door to Lorimer, helped organise the event. She said Thai people in Jersey lacked places such as a Thai school or other venues where they could celebrate their culture. “I think it's a lot of Thai people here in Jersey, but they don't have places like a Thai school or other things where Thai people can celebrate their culture,” she said.

Kierys pointed to the Polish Saturday School as an example of what children can gain from a dedicated community space. “We've got the Polish Saturday School, so our children know our traditions, culture, language, and Thai people should have something similar,” she said. Her comparison puts language, tradition and intergenerational connection at the centre of the request—not simply a one-off celebration, but somewhere for cultural life to continue.

The 2021 Jersey Census recorded 267 island residents born in Thailand, 52 more than the 2011 count. Those are figures about birthplace, not a count of everyone who attended Friday’s gathering. The report offers no attendance breakdown beyond “dozens”, and no details about a Thai school or other permanent cultural venue being established. Kierys said she was sure Lorimer would plan more events. For now, the gathering at Town Hall was a community-organised occasion, with future classes and celebrations still described as plans.