The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand

Ans Westra

This selection of 20 photographs is from The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand. Photographs by Ans Westra, and text by Adrienne Jansen. Asia New Zealand Foundation, Wellington, 2009. These photographs and captions are reproduced with the kind permission of the photographer, writer, and Asia New Zealand Foundation.

As their publicity states, this book 'opens new doors into the lives of the largest group of Muslims in New Zealand and in the world as a whole: those of Asian descent. Photographer Ans Westra and writer Adrienne Jansen - armed with a camera and a tape recorder - take a trip through the country, catching up with people in their everyday lives. They meet a very diverse group, ethnically, culturally, and theologically. There are lawyers and farmers, computer trainers and butchers, fourth generation New Zealanders and new migrants. They talk with disarming honesty about the media, about 9/11, about identity, about their faith - but mostly they just talk about who they are and their life in New Zealand today.'

The biographies and philosophies of 37 individuals or families, transcribed from interviews made during 2008 accompany the 47 photographs by Ans Westra commissioned by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. The large format 28x28cm soft cover book, with brilliantly varnished plates (Printed by Everbest in China), sells for $NZ45.00, and can be purchased via the Asia New Zealand Foundations web site. Westra's photographs, as ever, show the changing face of New Zealand and New Zealanders, as our identification with Asia and the South Pacific is strengthened.