Barbara Dreaver: fighting injustices

News correspondent Barbara Dreaver has spent years in journalistic trenches – fighting against injustices across the Pacific. She’s earned her “veteran journalist” title, and the respect of countless communities, writes Metropol Deputy Editor Nina Tucker.

A veteran journalist? “That can’t be me,” TVNZ’s Barbara says. “Then when I think about it, I realise how fast the years have flown by; it’s hard to believe I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years and older than I like to think,” she laughs.

The story she’s never told, yet soon will – her own – began in Rarotonga. She worked for a local newspaper before gambling on personal talent and tenacity. Barbara recounts when, as a co-owner of the weekly Cook Islands Press, she and publisher Jason Brown would wake daily to leaked documents shoved under the office door, the seeds for stories that would change lives.

“This part of my career shaped me. We had to break stories or we would go bankrupt. We were surviving week to week, so I learnt how to investigate.” With the Government in financial crisis, and Barbara’s revealing stories keeping those in power accountable, maintaining a small business was difficult. “We were exposing stories of corruption that made us hugely unpopular,” she remembers. That hard slog “toughened” Barbara up, preparing her for a lifetime of exposing the truth.

Each story comes at a price. Relentlessly fighting to reveal the truth puts a target on Barbara’s back. “I have faced all sorts of abuse and threats over the years – but you have to keep going. I refuse to be scared of these people or deterred,” she admits. “One thing I hate above all else is corruption and people who take advantage of others.” Exposing meth rings in Fiji and Tonga, and a United States adoption scam in Samoa – each story was challenging. Those involving children are the most gruelling, heartbreaking tales to tell, Barbara offers Samoa’s deathly and devastating measles epidemic as an example.

Her goal in reporting has never changed: stories that make a difference. “Accolades are lovely but I have never depended on that for my growth.” What she searches for is ending crime and injustice. “Many years ago I did a story about a solo mum who was worried sick about her 12-year-old son as they were living in a mouldy, dangerous boarding house. She couldn’t get a state house and was on a waiting list, but after I did a story she got offered a small home. On Christmas Day she sent me a message saying while they don’t have a lot, she and her boy had a safe roof over their heads and thanked me for the best Christmas ever.
That meant something.”

Born in Kiribati, Barbara had a journalistic advantage – she was trusted to uncover secrets and share the stories of these communities. Those connections provided a foundation, and Barbara spent years cultivating contacts, both grassroots and high-ranking, across the Pacific and New Zealand. “People trust me to take a good, hard look at their situation without fear or favour and to challenge administrations if that is necessary,” she declares.

With maturity comes knowledge – Barbara always looks below the surface before her story angle takes shape. Her work is not always embraced by the communities she serves, even as Pacific Correspondent. “People don’t like hearing what they don’t want to hear. But I have to be true to the principles of journalism.”

I asked how it felt to be named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List: “It was surreal and still is.” Although this was momentous for Barbara and her family, it still doesn’t come close to the countless scams and wrongdoings she relentlessly strives to uncover.

In the TVNZ newsroom, she finds herself lucky, listing colleagues and bosses who provide support that she knows many Pacific journalists don’t get, despite the risk it takes to tell stories so critical to New Zealand. “The problem is a lot of editors and publishers don’t rate Pacific stories. That is just plain wrong,” Barbara declares.

She recites the people and strength she’s encountered throughout the years and all my daily stressors shrink. Little compares to the raw pain and struggle she’s seen. With rain comes rainbows, and she recounts strength amidst the tragedy. Barbara shares a young Tae Kami’s story, an inspirational Tongan teenager with terminal cancer, whose song Walk On Walk Strong became a movement. “I interviewed her a number of times in the last three weeks before she passed away. I cried and she held my hand. I felt blessed to have known her strength,” Barbara reflects.

She candidly shares that she fails to balance her personal and professional life. Extensive hours sourcing, interviewing, editing, and bouncing between New Zealand and the Pacific leaves little time out. “It’s a huge amount of work to fit into limited hours of the day.” Plus, she needs to be ready to face the public, a camera, or tremendous people of power at any time. I can’t envision when Barbara finds time to write the memoir she’s releasing in October, a gripping dive into her professional career and “some of the more tense times such as being detained in Fiji and Nauru”.

Forever faithful to her purpose, Barbara continues championing communities even after her workday ends – she’s a member of the NZ Football Foundation board and a fellow with the Pacific Regional Security Hub at Canterbury University.

On 8 March, Barbara joins the Zonta Ashburton Women’s Day Breakfast as a guest speaker, a fitting coupling as her work has always garnered overwhelming support from Canterbury people.

Image credit: Lisa Matson, @nzmakeuppro