Maori Television Appoints Waitangi Day Presenters

TUESDAY JANUARY 30 2007

Maori Television Appoints Waitangi Day Presenters

Leading broadcasters Julian Wilcox, Wena Harawira, Tainui Stephens and Kerre Woodham will present Maori Television’s all-day coverage of New Zealand’s national day, Waitangi Day, on Tuesday February 6.

WAITANGI 2007: KOTAHI TE RA – beginning at 12.00 PM and ending at 11.30 PM – will include reports from key Waitangi Day events at home and abroad as well as news, views, interviews, discussions, documentaries, entertainment and historical highlights.

Julian Wilcox (Ngapuhi, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Arawa) – who will anchor the live-to-air broadcast from commemorations at the birthplace of the Treaty of Waitangi in the Bay of Islands – is one of Maori Television’s most familiar faces as presenter of the channel’s daily news programme TE KAEA. He first entered broadcasting as a student at Te Aute College, announcing for Hawke’s Bay iwi radio station Te Reo Irirangi o Ngati Kahungunu, and has provided news and political commentary from Wellington for TVNZ’s Maori news programme Te Karere and sports commentary on Auckland’s Radio Waatea. Wilcox has also presented other series’ and specials for Maori Television including award-winning sports show NGA HAU TIPUA, live links for the channel’s launch day and first birthday celebrations, and riveting reo Maori debating series TAUPATUPATU.

Wena Harawira (Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui, Ngai Tuhoe) – who will provide live updates from Los Angeles, USA, at the creation of a giant silver fern sand sculpture to launch the Made From New Zealand brand – was a founding member of TVNZ’s Maori news programme Te Karere more than 20 years ago and its first female reporter/presenter. Harawira went on to work for Mana News and Mana Magazine and is a published author and editor. Her television experience includes reporting and presenting for TVNZ’s magazine programme Marae, sub-editing news bulletins for BBC Wales, researching and narrating several mainstream documentaries, and producing a range of government, corporate and educational videos. Harawira and Judy Bailey co-hosted Maori Television’s award-winning ANZAC Day broadcast last year.

Tainui Stephens (Te Rarawa) – who was joint executive producer of Maori Television’s award-winning ANZAC Day broadcast – is an independent producer, director, executive producer, writer, and presenter. Stephens started his broadcasting career with Television New Zealand’s Koha in 1984 and has worked on Waka Huia, Marae, Maori Battalion March To Victory, When The Haka Became Boogie, The Black Singlet Legacy, Icon In B Minor, The New Zealand Wars, Mai Time, He Whare Korero and River Queen. He is the Maori advisor or kaiurungi to New Zealand On Air and a board member of the NZ Film Commission while his company, Pito One Productions, is based in Ngaruawahia.

Kerre Woodham –who joins Tainui Stephens as co-presenter of the Waitangi Day broadcast from Maori Television’s Auckland studio – is the host of the number one night-time talk show in New Zealand, on NewsTalk ZB, from Monday through to Thursday. She also hosts ZB's Sunday morning current affairs and lifestyle show, Kerre's Cafe. Woodham has a weekly column in the Herald on Sunday and has a BA majoring in history and political studies as well as an honours degree in history and will begin her masters this year. She is no stranger to television having appeared in Intrepid Journeys on TV1 where she went to India, Nepal and Cambodia, and on Fair Go, Heartland, Ready Steady Cook, Dream Jobs, Together Again and State of the Nation. She has also hosted a number of documentaries.

For unprecedented coverage of New Zealand’s national day, tune into Maori Television for WAITANGI 2007: KOTAHI TE RA – on Tuesday February 6 from 12.00 PM to 11.30 PM.

ENDS

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