Ans Westra & {Suite} Director David Alsop in the Dominion Post: 'Memories in black and white' - '40 years on: Photographer Ans Westra in the thick of the 1981 Springbok protest'
"The 1981 images are “grunty”. They capture a moment in time that divided the country, but also brought to light the issues New Zealand was facing too. It was August 29, the day of the second test between the All Blacks and Springboks. There had been protests up and down the country, including violent clashes in Wellington, on Molesworth Street, exactly a month before. On this day, thousands of people were marching from all over Wellington towards Athletic Park in Newtown to protest. There were anti-tour demonstrators with placards and wearing helmets, and they were facing off against police with batons drawn...
Westra set out with her trusty Rolleiflex camera, and rolls upon rolls of black and white film – her preferred medium because it allowed her to focus entirely on the image or scene without distraction of colour. She headed first to the Hutt Road, then up towards the game. She took some of the most dramatic photos of the clashes that day."
