20 Oct 2019

Martine Bannvinger's new play about fellow migrant Ans Westra

From Standing Room Only, 1:33 pm on 20 October 2019

Dutch migrant Ans Westra really shook things up in her new home with her revealing black and white photographs of New Zealand, particularly her controversial school bulletin, Washday at the Pa. After arriving here in 1957, Ans was particularly drawn to photographing Maori culture. Over the decades she's produced a huge number of images of New Zealand life, then and now. Her early years in Aotearoa have been dramatised by Nelson writer, actor and fellow Dutch migrant Martine Baanvinger in a solo play called Aperture. It's about to premiere at the Nelson Arts Festival. Martine talked with Lynn Freeman about how she first came across Ans Westra. Aperture premieres at the Suter Theatre on Thursday Oct 24 as part of the Nelson Arts Festival.