Contributors to 1973 edition of Bairns Times sought for arts project

An Oslo-based artist is seeking former pupils who appeared in an edition of Bairns Times.

Miriam Sentler looking for contributors to the 1973 magazine, which was published by The Shetland Times.

They were 10 or 11 years old at the time, making them aged around 63 today.

Sentler is based at the University of Oslo where she is researching the cultural implications of oil and other energy production in and around the North Sea.

This latest research is part of her thesis Burn Up the Oil Dragon: Imagining and Performing Energy Discourse through Creativity and Storytelling in the Shetland Isles.

She is particularly keen to find the authors of four stories from that edition, which she wrote about in her theses.

They are:

Gary Johnson, who wrote the story: Burn-Up the Oil Dragon;

Caroline Williamson, who wrote: Tammie and the Oil Man;

Alice Laurenson, who wrote: Oil: Will it Destroy Unst or Will it Benefit?

Cheryl Byrne, who wrote: Oil.

Sentler has also been looking at letters written by Maureen Inkster, Elaine Fordyce, David Cooper, Lynne Colligan, David Robertson, Carole Grant and Valerie Johnson.

“Even if I would be able to find only one of them, I could ask them for their former classmates,” she said.

The artist first visited Shetland in 2023 as part of Shetland/Norway artist “Brigdi” exchange programme operated by art organisations Gaada (Shetland) and Pamflett (Bergen).

People are invited to email: toogs@gaada.org with any information about the former pupils current day whereabouts.