Photographer who captured a nation’s soul
Ans Westra dies
Tuesday 28 February 2023
Ans Westra has died. It's a sad moment, she was 86. Any one who was around Aotearoa in the 70s would have seen her, and known who she was. She was an exceptional photographer with what has turned out to be a keen and perceptive eye for what defined culture and real citizenship. Her photography of Maori life was legendary and in time, long after her death, it will be seen as a great treasure. When you scroll through her offerings in the National Library, it is breathtaking. She had our nation at that time. As a young reporter out on the political streets of Wellington, she was always around. She never intruded, she was on the side with her camera. Sometimes, being young and naive, I wondered what she saw. She never seemed to take notes for captions and she never competed for the news headline action. Look now at the photos she got though, and you see soul and life. As we were living it. In an intriguing moment she photographed Jim Kebbell and Marion Wood at, what now, seems an important moment of history - the Curious Cove gathering. I did not know them, and was not at Curious Cove. Westra's photos of Jim and Marion were tremendous. Later in the decade I was in Samoa in the Prime Minister's Department. And then Jim and Marion arrived. I knew why I was there; never sure why they were there. Turns out Jim went to boarding school with the prime minister. As it happens, just before that, in a wet Wellington, I had gone to some protest (I cannot remember what, likely to have been anti-Vietnam War) and Westra, as was her way, was on the sidelines. Her picture of me speaking (with some performance motions I have no understanding of now) was later published. Without my name (Jim and Marion rated handles).
It feels humbling now to realise that an artist and historian like Westra had me in a frame or two... She deserves a nation's thanks.
In other substack postings…
‘It’s not too bad here in Tokelau after all’
Fakaofo has a traditional fale set among the breadfruit trees and the small sandy common. A heavy yellow rope was wrapped around the fale, to hold back the expected crowds. They did not come. A little girl pressed against the rope. A couple of other kids kicked a ball around. When the counting was done, of the 584 votes, 60 percent had agreed to self-government. The leadership had set a two-thirds requirement and the proposition failed.
That night the new Ulu was installed.
‘We feel ashamed that we cannot stand up and determine our own future,’ Tuia said. ‘That really hurts us, we cannot be free men…. We continue being a colony of New Zealand, it is very hard.’
Lady Naomi food had been heavy and plentiful on the way up, mostly steaks. As we sailed back to Apia the Sāmoan chef stuck his head around the door.
‘We’ve run out of food, but don’t worry, there is plenty of wine.’
At The Pacific Newsroom among the stories we linked too…
Cyclone Judy is moving toward Vanuatu
Samoa at risk of another measles epidemic
Fiji’s new government launches investigation into Grace Rd cult