Lyn Potter from NZ Booklovers reviews The Near West: A History of Grey Lynn, Arch Hill and Westmere by Tania Mace:
'The Near West is a fascinating in-depth history of 3 adjoining suburbs, Grey Lynn, Arch Hill and Westmere, and the people that have lived there. Wide ranging, it covers the geological and Māori history, farming, industry, local government, education, religion, sports and the arts. At over 400 pages it is a long but very engaging read, and it is richly illustrated with over 250 photographs, maps, and artworks.
Tania Mace, the author, a freelance historian and researcher (mainly in the heritage area) is a local who has lived in Grey Lynn for over 30 years loves it and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Writing this book involved a massive amount of painstaking research. Her children were at primary school when she started writing it and are now at secondary school and university.
She tells how the earliest inhabitants were Māori. It was the eeling ground of mana whenua and they grew flax and kumara there before the colonial carve-up into farmland. When the area was subdivided, for residential use, there was a very gradual transition from farm to residential land through Victorian and Edwardian times and beyond.
Post-war, the houses, especially in Grey Lynn, became run down and became available as cheap rental accommodation for Māori from rural communities who came to Auckland in search of jobs and for Pacific Islanders who the government brought in to stem the labour shortage. They were working-class suburbs that voted Labour, and many locals became concerned about issues of social justice. It was in Arch Hill that the Polynesian Panthers were formed in 1971 to support Polynesian people fighting racial prejudice.
Many of New Zealand’s foremost creatives, visual artists, musicians, actors, playwrights, TV presenters and writers were also attracted by the cheap rents. From the 1980s and 1990s, creative types were everywhere. Budding and established musicians spent much time writing in bedrooms, lounges, sleepouts and sheds, which could also provide space for recording.
Potter Len Castle, and painters Colin McCahon, Toni Fomison and Gretchen Albrecht found it an affordable place to set up their studios.'
Read the rest of the review here.
