Artwork Information

The Whanganui River was once a major inland waterway for Māori and they established many settlements along its 290 kilometre journey from the mountains at Tongariro to the Tasman Sea. Hiruharama (Jerusalem) is at a bend in the river where the Roman Catholic Church established a Māori Mission Station in 1883. Much later Jerusalem became known when the poet, James K. Baxter, established a commune there, which became a refuge for young people wishing to 'opt out' of urban society. Anne Noble grew up in the city of Wanganui and had reflected on the area's difficult past. Travelling by foot, aeroplane, jetboat and at times by canoe, she worked for two years to produce her powerful photo-essay The Wanganui. Noble was clear in her purpose: 'I want to offer my pictures as an experience of this landscape, to make people love it very deeply . . . I am interested in all the forces that have shaped Jerusalem and made it the way it is. A lot has happened there. I want to convey in my photographs that it is a place of great power and meaning'. (from The Guide, 2001)