MAORI

Te Ao Hou, December 1967, Page 60

MAORI Photography by Ans Westra Text by Dr J. E. Ritchie A. H. & A. W. Reed, $6.30 reviewed by N. P. K. Puriri This book, this collection of people captured by the camera and recorded for all time, is indeed a magnificent effort. I am not an expert on photography but what I see here, I like. These are real people. No one can accuse Ans Westra of favouritism, as her subjects are from the four points of the compass. Jim Ritchie has written the background information in language that can be understood by the average person. It is clear that his essays were written sitting on an ordinary chair and not in a professorial one. This book is one of the best of its kind I have had the pleasure of reading. It covers the field more than adequately. There are a number of errors due to poor editing, inexcusable for a book of such quality. I hope that these will be remedied in the next edition. Recently I had an overseas guest in my home. I introduced her to Maori and I understand that she was so taken up with the book that she bought a number of copies to give to her New Zealand friends and relatives in her homeland. In my opinion this publication will help sow the seeds of understanding between Maori and Maori and between Maori and Pakeha. If you want to give a worthwhile gift, why not Maori? If you want to know what is ‘Maoritanga’ then go get yourself this book. It shows the stages of man from the cradle to the grave. It portrays people singing, dancing, eating, weeping, and there is even a T.A.B. shot. In other words, Ans Westra has seen and then shown the Maori people as they are. Her photographic work in Tamariki was excellent but this effort is a ‘beauty’.