Controversial Washday

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 4

Controversial Washday

Washday At The Pa. By Ans Westra. Caxton Press. 47 PP“Washday at the Pa” can not need much introduction. It must be one of the most widely-publicised school bulletins yet produced by the Education Department. The present edition published by the Caxton Press has been expanded with some additional photographs and an accompanying “Publisher’s Note” which recounts the events leading up to the Minister’s instruction for the bulletin to be withdrawn from the schools and for existing stocks to be destroyed. Setting aside all but artistic considerations, and Miss Westra could fairly claim that these are the only considerations relevant in Judging the merits of her work, this account of a day in the Wereta household is delightful. It will make an excellent

gift to send abroad and it is a tribute to the high quality of the Education Department’s bulletins. Considerations, other than artistic ones, cannot be set aside so easily. It is fashionable in most sections of the pakeha world for groups of people to be concerned about their “public image.” The Maori Women’s Welfare League is concerned to see that the “public image” of the Maori is favourable. This is no easy task in a community which is not noted for its tolerance of cultural differences. In this respect, the exposure to the public gaze of certain aspects of the Wereta’s life, was felt to let the side down. The controversy over the bulletin did not reflect the inadequacy of Miss Westra’s picture of the Wereta family so much as Maori concern over the inadequacy of the picture of Maori families in the minds of pakehas. Would it not have been better for the Minister of Education to have declined to suppress a bulletin of genuine merit, but to have recognised the concern of the Welfare League by ensuring that future bulletins would reflect corporately the diversity of Maori occupations, standards and patterns of living? The dubious victory of the Maori Women’s Welfare League will have done nothing to assuage an understandable anxiety. Unless something is done to assuage this, it is reasonable to suppose that the controversy over “Washday at the Pa” will not be the last of its kind.