#Agedpersons

Early Settlers' Museum, Dunedin
View of a room with many photographic portraits of early settlers on the walls. A man sits on a chair in the foreground and a woman stands nearby.

#EarlySettlersMuseum #Dunedin #moe_tahurangi #Matapihi #Kōtuia #Portraitphotographs #Agedpersons #Galleries&museums #photographicgelatin #photographicpaper #silver #matboard #gelatinsilverprints #worksofart #Contemporary

api.digitalnz.org/records/2744

This black and white photograph captures a moment within the Early Settlers' Museum in Dunedin. The room is filled with numerous framed photographs of early settlers, which are arranged on walls that form two perpendicular sides creating an L-shaped display area.

In the foreground, we see a man seated on a chair engrossed in examining one of these portraits closely through his glasses. His posture suggests deep interest or contemplation as he focuses intently on the image before him.

Beside him stands a woman who appears to be gesturing with her right hand and holding what seems like a pair of sunglasses, possibly pointing out something specific about the portrait they are discussing. She is dressed in period attire indicative of early 20th-century fashion: she wears a tweed coat over a darker dress paired with knee-high stockings and dark shoes.

The room's wooden flooring adds to the historical ambiance of this setting, enhancing its authenticity as a repository for preserving memories from past generations. The overall atmosphere conveyed by this image is one of quiet reflection on history and heritage.

Waiwhetu marae, Lower Hutt
This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018). In Waiwhetu marae, Lower Hutt, Ans Westra records the rituals that were part of the opening of the whare whakairo, or carved meeting house, Arohanui ki te Tāngata. But, unlike the woman with the camera in the front row, who is a participant as well as a photographer, Westra is an outsider, an observer. Answering a question about how Māori viewed her activities in the 1960s, Westra said, ‘The Maori would often say they couldn’t visualise that any of their people would work in this kind of isolation because I had to very much stay on the outside and be uninvolved to get my pictures. They said, “We couldn’t visualise a Maori girl doing this because it is too lonely”.’1
The terms of documentary photography were established in the early part of the twentieth century. The photographer was, as Westra suggests, a discreet witness of humanity, the truth of his or her visual record guaranteed by distance and objectivity. Yet the presence of the camera, a stand-in for Westra’s activity, and the way in which the two women (one on the left, the other in the second row) return the camera’s gaze, breaks the illusion that is an integral part of documentary photography — that the protagonists are not aware of being photographed and are therefore not changed by the act. Waiwhetu marae, Lower Hutt is so rich because it suggests the various dynamics and interactions that attend any documentary image but which are often left out of the frame.
Westra arrived in New Zealand from the Netherlands in 1957 and quickly became interested in documenting Māori people and culture. As she says, Māori culture ‘seemed to be the most interesting thing here [in New Zealand], and also there was this strong feeling that things were going to change, that here was something historical that needed recording’.2 In part this explains the power of Westra’s photographs, in which the old and new worlds make contact. Customary Māori social practices survive, even as they are transplanted to new environments.
Damian Skinner
1 Ans Westra, quoted in Damian Skinner, ‘The eye of an outsider: A conversation with Ans Westra’, Art New Zealand, no. 100, Summer 2001, p. 100.
2 Ibid., p. 99.

#Waiwhetu #LowerHutt #NewZealandArt #TePapa #LowerHutt #AnsWestra #Arohanuiki #Tāngata #Westra #Māori #Maori #lonely#NewZealand #Netherlands #DamianSkinner #1AnsWestra #DamianSkinner #AnsWestra#first #third #second #moe_tahurangi #Matapihi #Kōtuia #Women #Agedpersons #Ethnicgroups #Cameras #Woodcarvings #photographicgelatin #photographicpaper #silver #gelatinsilverprints #worksofart #Contemporary #Rites&ceremonies

api.digitalnz.org/records/2743

A black and white photograph showing four elderly women sitting closely together. They appear to be at an event, with the woman in the center holding a camera and looking through its viewfinder.
From left: The first woman is wearing glasses and has dark hair pulled back under a headscarf; she wears a heavy coat over a lighter garment adorned with flower patterns, possibly brooches or badges. Next to her sits another older woman also wearing a dark jacket over a floral-patterned dress or skirt, accessorized with what appears to be pins or jewelry on the lapel and chest.
The third person is younger; she has light brown hair pulled back into an updo under a headscarf like those worn by the other women. She wears glasses and her coat has flower patterns similar to that of the second woman's garment, suggesting they are wearing traditional attire suitable for cultural events or gatherings.
Finally, on the far right is another elderly woman with white or grey hair; she wears a dark jacket over what looks like a floral-patterned shawl draped around her shoulders. She gestures towards something outside this frame with an open hand and appears to be speaking or emphasizing a point in conversation among herself and others at this event.
Behind them, we can see part of the ornate wooden interior of a structure that could possibly suggest they are seated on traditional seats or bench [...]

Maoritanga - Scenes from Maori Life, Opening Pipitea marae, Wellington.
View focusing on two older women (kuia) in attendance at Pipitea marae so as to witness the unveiling of the meeting house sited there - the woman seen to the right is wearing a white hat and a fur coat, the woman featured at left is dressed (predeominantly) in black.

#Maoritanga-Scenes #MaoriLife #Pipitea #Wellington #moe_tahurangi #Matapihi #Kōtuia #Women #Agedpersons #Furcoats #Necklaces #Māori #photographicgelatin #photographicpaper #silver #workprints #gelatinsilverprints #Ethnicgroups

api.digitalnz.org/records/2037

The image features two older women who appear to be at a formal event. On the left, there is an individual wearing a black shirt with a patterned scarf around their neck and a black hat with tassels. On the right, another woman is seen in a white fur coat, suggesting cold weather conditions or a preference for luxurious attire. Both women are looking towards each other, indicating that they might be in conversation or attending the same event together. They seem to be at a gathering of significance, as indicated by their attire and the setting.

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