Tristan da Cunha island community and the connection to Shetland: SCIS research event

Posted on by Dr Kathryn A. Burnett


Illustrated Talk: Tristan da Cunha’s ‘volcano years’1961-1963 – the Shetland dimension

Ray Burnett and Kathryn Burnett, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland

TDC Survivors on Boat
Image courtesy of British Pathe

In 1961 a volcanic eruption forced the community of Tristan da Cunha, ‘the loneliest island in the world’, to abandon their island home for evacuation to the UK and an uncertain future. First to offer a new home to the Tristanians were the islanders of Shetland. While government deliberated what to do, the ‘refugee’ island representatives visited Shetland to assess the possibilities.  After considerable debate the government’s preferred resettlement location was to be the south of England where the islanders remained for just under two years before they were finally able to return to Tristan in 1963.

As Tristan da Cunha celebrates the 50th anniversary of this return, Ray and Kathryn Burnett have been researching this remarkable story of small island survival. The media coverage and government files of these events reveal much about prevailing perceptions of islands and islanders within the ‘corridors of power’ and the popular press.  Their findings in the archives, from Stockholm to Shetland bring to light not just the significance of those who stepped forward as the champions of small island communities but also the importance of the Shetland dimension. This illustrated talk will present these findings with a view to rekindling and seeking out memories from within Shetland of these events of fifty years ago.

This research has been funded by the British Academy.

The talk is on at Shetland Museum Archives  on Thursday 7th March 2013  at 7:30 pm (Doors open  7:00 pm). All welcome.

Published by Dr Kathryn A. Burnett

With a background in social anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, Kathryn’s research interests include the mediatization and representation of remote and island spaces; identity, ecologies and place narratives of Scotland’s rural communities, coasts and islands; cultural work, precarity and creative enterprise; Scottish cultural heritage and arts contexts including Gaelic and Scots for applied creative practice; sustainable communities, resilience, development, entrepreneurship, cultural policy and the commons in small island, remote, peripheral and rural contexts. Current external activity includes UWS representative on the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design Network (ASAD); and Kathryn is an organising group member for UK wide MSIG in Participatory and Collaborative Methods. Contact: kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk

1 thought on “Tristan da Cunha island community and the connection to Shetland: SCIS research event”

  1. Thanks to everyone at the Shetland Museum and Archives for their help and support with this event. It was a most rewarding evening for us too with all the interesting comments and questions, and so nice to get such a lovely feedback comment: “Probably the best lecture and discussion in the Shetland Museum and Archives since it opened”. Brian Smith, Shetland Archivist. Cheers Brian – we had a great time. Our research trips into the communities of Shetland (Cullivoe, Mid Yell, North Voe and Hillswick) where it was proposed the Tristan ‘refugees’ might be offered a new home went really well.

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