It could be said what Westra was doing with her camera the writer Elsie Locke was doing with her pen. Locke (1912– 2001)1 was a writer, novelist, historian and leader in peace movements and women‘s affairs, and another writer whose life covers the whole time-frame of this study. Born in Hamilton, Locke described the hardships and delights of her early life in Waiuku and at Auckland University in her autobiographical work Student at the Gates (1981).
This autobiography details life in the 1920s–30s, illuminating both some dominant political and literary personalities of the time and also the influences which shaped her idealistic socialist philosophies. In the 1930s Locke edited the early feminist journal Woman Today (Hebley, 1998: 309).
Born Elsie Farelly, in 1941 she married Jack Locke, both having been members of the New Zealand Communist Party, which she left in 1956 after the Russian invasion of Hungary. They moved from Wellington to Christchurch, where they raised four children. She served on the national executive of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1957–70). She also continued writing for adults: The Shepherd and the Scullery Maid (1950), The
Human Conveyer Belt (1968), The Gaoler (1978) on early Otago, and two
privately printed family histories. She edited Gordon Watson, New Zealander,
1912–1945 (1949). In 1959, she received the Katherine Mansfield Award for
Non-Fiction for her essay in Landfall 48.
Locke is probably more widely known as a writer for children. Drawing her topics and themes from her interests and commitments, she carried out diligent research, often historical or relating to outdoor exercise. Her preparation included learning Te Reo Māori to understand the Māori point of view, which she expresses with sympathy and insight in novels that in this respect were in advance of general perceptions. Her first novel for children was based on a true story. The Runaway Settlers (1965), illustrated by Anthony Maitland, portrays a remarkable historical-fiction mother whose experiences include driving a herd of cattle over the Southern Alps and down
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the Teremakau River to the West Coast. This novel has been in continuous print for longer than any other New Zealand children‘s book.
Locke‘s historical novels during the period covered by this thesis include The End of the Harbour (1969), illustrated by Katarina Mataira, a compassionate exploration of land issues from Māori and Pākehā perspectives. Of Locke‘s books Gilderdale states they are ‗closer, perhaps, to historical documentary than to fiction. They present Māori perspectives and are based on careful reconstructions of actual events, angled from the viewpoint of a young protagonist‘ (Gilderdale, 1998: 545).
The 1951 New Zealand Writers‘ Conference was part of Canterbury‘s Centenary celebrations, for which Locke had written The Shepherd and the Scullery Maid. She had also published a number of articles and poems by this time, and several of her radio talks had been broadcast. The Conference was held in Christchurch in May 1951, and Elsie was one of the few women there. Ruth France, another Canterbury woman writer, who was married to a boat-builder, also attended, but it wasn‘t until after the Conference that she and Locke became friends.
One day, France approached Locke in the Christchurch Public Library and told her quite frankly that she was ‗starved for literary conversation‘. Both had children, both had been librarians, and both were inspired to commemorate the 1951 Wellington to Lyttelton boat race, which was devastated by a violent storm. Locke wrote For Those Who Sailed, a series of poems, and France wrote a novel, The Race, published in 1958. Sometimes France wrote under the pen name Paul Henderson. France‘s own life suggests a degree of frustration:
Determined to be the good wife and mother that society at the time demanded, she also spoke of the impulse towards writing, of the intensity of purpose that grew with age and excluded procrastination, and of the happiness of being alone and writing (Beaglehole, 2007: DNZB website).
Although France did not write for children the two women must have found much common ground in their lives‘ circumstances as they shared the double
162 balancing act of bringing up children as well as being writers. France pre- deceased Locke by thirty-three years, dying in 1968 from cancer.
At the conference, Locke sat with Winston and Sophie Rhodes. Winston taught English at the university and often lectured for the Workers Education Association (WEA). Locke reported on the Conference in the left-wing journal Here and Now the following month, declaring ‗The Conference confirmed that our native literature has outgrown its knobbly-kneed stage, and has the vigour of youth, if not the quality of maturity.‘ She expressed special gratitude for James K Baxter‘s address on ‗Recent Trends in New Zealand Poetry‘ for its wisdom, its penetration, its social awareness, and its superbly phrased language.
She also mentioned addresses by Johannes C Anderson on Māori Lore; by Blackwood Paul on ‗The Novel in New Zealand‘ and by H Winston Rhodes on William Morris and his ‗art for the people and by the people.‘ At the end of her report, she ‗unashamedly‘ added a footnote about the social responsibility of writers:
I am convinced that many writers find it difficult because they begin with themselves instead of with the other fellow … The Conference revealed that, potentially at least, many of those present have much to give, even though their skill at the craft is not yet matched by their understanding of crucial human problems … Will they succeed in cultivating and conveying the life-giving spiritual food which a young country needs at this grave yet dazzlingly hopeful point in history? (Locke, 1951: 27-28).
Locke had her first contribution to the School Journal, ‗the Secret Rescue‘, published in 1958, and thereafter became a regular contributor until her death in 2001. During the intervening years she wrote many articles which reflected her commitment to social and socialist ideas. This can best be seen in her article in the Part 4 School Journal 1968, a year designated as the United Nations‘ ‗Human Rights Year‘. The issue had an interesting cover by artist David Cowe and was titled ‗The Hopeful Peace & the Hopeful War‘, which echoed her 1951 article on the Writers‘ Convention. In the 1968 School Journal Locke states:
163 Everyone has the right to food, clothing, housing and social services … No one shall be held in slavery or servitude … Everyone is entitled to these rights and freedoms without distinction of sex … Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; to freedom of speech and opinion, and of peaceful assembly and association (Locke, 2007: 58).
Thus Locke enters into her children‘s canon the ideas and ideals of her political and social agenda. To emphasise that ‗everyone is entitled to these rights and freedoms without distinction of sex‘ in an official ‗journal‘ aimed at eleven and twelve year olds was quite a brave and unusual thing to do in 1968.