Ans Westra Newspaper boy, Royal Oak tavern, Wellington 1960
This exhibition is now closed
Best known for her portrayal of Māori social, cultural and political life, this photographic journey captured by Ans Westra is a challenging and revealing record of the growth of our nation over nearly half a century of change.
Based on the Alexander Turnbull Library collections and organised by BWX (Blair Wakefield Exhibitions) in association with the National Library Gallery.
The comfortable conformity of late 1940s and 1950s New Zealand was forever changed with the post-war arrival of European migrants and the urban shift of Māori. It was a time when Māori and Pākehā had to interact widely for the first time. As a society, New Zealand and its citizens were far from prepared to accommodate the difficulties accompanying such a challenge to their homogenous cultural, social and institutional frameworks.
Ans Westra's arrival in New Zealand in 1957 coincided with that shift, and her life-long record of photographs show how the resultant changes and tensions have continued to characterise our nation’s social and cultural evolution. Handboek comprises a gallery of Ans Westra's most revealing and challenging documentary images, taking us on a remarkable photographic journey of the growth of a nation.
Extract taken from Bulletin 148 Autumn: March – May 2007. Based on the Alexander Turnbull Library collections and organised by BWX (Blair Wakefield Exhibitions) in association with the National Library Gallery.
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Date:
13 July – 4 November 2007 -
Location:
Ravenscar Gallery W A Sutton Gallery -
Exhibition number:
773