Biography
Born in 1936 in Leiden, Netherlands, Ans first arrived in Aotearoa in 1957 at the age of twenty-one. From the 1960s onwards, she spent long periods of time travelling around the country as a full-time freelance documentary photographer, working mainly for the Department of Education and Te Ao Hou, a Māori magazine published by the Government. Committed to observing and expressively documenting New Zealand life and culture, her candid images capture New Zealanders at work and play, Māori and Pākehā, old and young, rural and urban.
In 1964 Ans provided the text and images for Washday at the Pa, a school journal made for eight-year-olds. The book followed a day in the life of a rural Māori family awaiting relocation to a state house in the city, but was controversially withdrawn from circulation by the Department of Education following protests by the Māori Womens Welfare League. Ans retained copyright of the images and the book was privately republished soon after by the Caxton Press. Suite Publishing issued an updated edition of Washday at the Pa in 2011, which also includes images from a subsequent (1998) series, Washday at the Pa Revisited. Ans' visionary new book, Our Future Nga Tau ki Muri, was released in May 2013.
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Ans was awarded the Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit (CNZM) for services to photography in 1998, and in 2007 received an Arts Foundation Icon Award.
Ans received a Certificate of Excellence from the New York World's Fair for The World and Its People in 1964-65. She has received several Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grants, which have been used to fund the publication of further works focusing on New Zealand and its society. Ans was awarded the Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit (CNZM) for services to photography in 1998, and in 2007 received an Arts Foundation Icon Award. In 2015 Ans received an honorary doctorate from Massey University on Thursday in recognition of her long-standing contribution to the country’s visual culture.
In 2014, a project between {Suite} Tirohanga and the National Library of New Zealand began to digitise Ans' negative archive, consisting of around 300,000 images. On April 20, 2016, the {Suite} Westra Museum was established at 243 Cuba Street. Titled 'centrum'- the Dutch word for 'centre'- the living museum is dedicated to celebrating Ans' life and over fifty five years' worth of images; inside, visitors are able to browse articles and publications on the artist, dating as far back as the 1960s.
Ans' decades-long involvement with the portrayal of Aotearoa culture stands as the most significant cross-cultural visual record of the second half of the twentieth century. Ans passed away at her home in Wellington on 26 February 2023 aged 86 years. She is survived by her half-sister, three children and six grandchildren.
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Ans Westra, Tangi for Inia Te Wiata, Raukawa Marae, Otaki, 1971, framed silver gelatin print, 190 x 240 mm -
Video
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Introduction to the {Suite} Westra Museum
Introduction to the {Suite} Westra Museum featuring Ans Westra and {Suite} director David Alsop.
This space dedicated to celebrating to Ans Westra's life time of work and images.
Filmed and recorded on 4 April 2016 at the {Suite} Westra Museum, Wellington.
Published 16 April 2016 for #suitetube.______
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Ans Westra's Full Circle exhibition returns to rural NZ
Coverage of Ans Westra's Full Circle exhibition tour.
Filmed predominately in Ruatoki and published 10 March 2013 by Marae TV.______
