Broadcaster Joanna Paul Robie Unveils Terminal Cancer Diagnosis

Saturday, 29 June 2024, 2:42 pm Article: RNZ

Former news presenter Joanna Paul-Robie has revealed she has terminal cancer.

Speaking to RNZ's Matariki programme about receiving the Icon Award during the Ngā Tohu Toi awards on Thursday night, Robie described it as 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 Radio New Zealand, 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, Robie said.

"The newsroom was really, it was being run by mostly, a pair of middle-class middle-age 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.

RNZ hosts Justine Murray and Mihingarangi Forbes offered Robie their thanks.

"As a young Māori reporter, at times you were the only wāhine Māori on our screens Joanna," Forbes said.

"We want to thank you for being a trailblazer, for kicking down those doors and leaving them wide open for people like me and Justine sitting here next to me," she said.

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