Former news presenter Joanna Paul-Robie has revealed at a Matariki ceremony that she is dying of cancer.
Matariki is a traditional time to reflect on the year past and remember those who have died.
Paul-Robie, a familiar face and voice after a long career in radio and television, shared the news on RNZ’s Matariki programme that she has terminal cancer.
“I am unfortunately dying,” the iconicMāoribroadcastersaid as she talked about receiving the Icon Award during last night’s Ngā Tohu Toi awards in Tauranga.
She said the award was the “most honourable experience of my life”.
“I was so touched because this award means so much to me coming from Tauranga Moana.
“But more importantly because I am, unfortunately, dying – I have terminal cancer – and really to have this award before one posthumously gets it is an even better break.”
She said she received the award with her whānau at her side.
“I can’t tell you the lightness, the brightness, the feeling of aroha inside me last night.”
Paul-Robie began her career at RNZ, was a newsreader for TV3 and a programmes and production manager at Māori Television.
Starting out as one of the few wāhine Māori on New Zealand’s screens was tough, she said.
“The newsroom was really... it was being run by mostly a pair of middle-class middle-aged white men who had the audacity and the balls to say ‘If it bleeds it leads’ but these guys, you know, they had never been in a Māori world.”
She said it was her life’s work to bring together her wāhine Māori side and her work as a broadcaster.
