Miriama’s mahi: We chat with Miriama Kamo
Miriama Kamo might just be our next mother of the nation – at the least the closest we’ve got to Mother Earth. Metropol editor Nina Tucker catches up with the multimedia journalist and sustainability savvy maven.
Much has changed for Miriama Kamo since Sunday, the current affairs show she anchored, fell over in 2024, yet at the same time, not much has changed at all. Her storytelling vein stretches across countless platforms with more freedom – “In this current environment, you need to wear a number of hats to get by,” she says. The Christchurch-born journalist recently started two production companies with friends and colleagues – Herd Productions and Putiputi Productions – bringing to life documentaries, web-series, podcasts, and corporate content.
Navigating each change and challenge with grace, Miriama radiates a genuine glow of positivity. I’ve had a lot of highs and lows, because I’m fortunate to have lived long enough to collect those experiences. I’ve lost pregnancies, but raised two beautiful children. I’ve lost loved ones, but continue to be surrounded by people I love and who love me back. I’ve had health challenges, but most of the time
I have good health.” Her honesty is compelling – a breath of fresh air in a world that skews reality for better or worse. Miriama explains how every opportunity, even those she dislikes, are humbling offers. “I am serious about noticing privilege, and I’ve had my fair share. I came from a loving whānau and continue to live in one.
I was able to eat and have clothes and a warm home growing up, and I still do. And I feel similarly about my career,” she says. With privilege comes responsibility. “When I look back over the length of my service, I’d like to know that I was led by the notion of giving back more than I took. I’d like my place in the industry to be defined by that, and hope to have earned that place all through my life.”
Those opportunities – co-anchoring Māori current affairs programme Marae with Scotty Morrison, emceeing events, authoring childrens books, being a patron for New Zealander of the Year and ambassador for countless charities – didn’t just land in Miriama’s lap. She earned them after years of building trust with those “who would never normally have, or want, a camera in front of them”, yet who knew Miriama would do their story justice. She’s forever committed to encouraging people to look beyond the surface and “disagree”.
Miriama shares her second lifelong journey: learning te reo Māori. From a whānau of strong advocates and activists for Māori rights, a Pākehā mother and Māori father who were both prison chaplains, Miriama’s eyes were opened early to the injustices and inequities Māori face. “It has permeated every level of our society so that too many are pushed down, excluded and discarded. Too many of my people are represented in stats like this,” Miriama says. Her mahi highlights inequities and spotlights Māori success. “Often we speak of the negatives but don’t spend enough time telling the ‘whole’ story which, in the case of Māoridom, is one of beauty, strength, resilience and inspiration.”
By her side for the journey is her family: son Sam, daughter Te Rerehua, husband Mike, and a fleet of siblings, aunties, uncles, and cousins. Miriama finds peace in the present – chasing her goals and using her mahi to drive unity.
Based in Auckland, Miriama still finds her way back to Ōtautahi intermittently. Most recently, she emceed Kairos Food Rescue’s annual charity gala. “It’s incredible to step into their organisation and see the mahi that’s being done to create change for our more vulnerable community members. I couldn’t admire their passion and dedication more.”
Miriama’s ‘me-time’? She laughs. “I write, mostly kids books. I hang out with the whānau. I continue the lifelong wero (challenge) of learning te reo Māori. I watch bad telly. I lay about and try not to doomscroll. And my husband forces me to go out for walks.”
ECO-WARRIOR
Miriama’s now zero-waste journey began as a month-long New Year’s Eve challenge in 2018, and quickly became “the best thing I’ve ever done for my mental health,” she reflects. “I was suffering with deep climate anxiety, but didn’t realise at the time that following zero waste would bring me joy. It did and does still. I’m no longer anxious, just very concerned about the state of te taiao (the natural world). My motto is ‘don’t get anxious, get active.’”
Her ideology on sustainable living is simple, and all about living within our means. “There’s no need for excess, for taking more than you give. The balance is in the practice. We are way out of balance as a species, balance will return as we lean back into what we sprang from and what we will return to – earth.”
We agree that we’re in trouble until society wakes up to its unsustainable actions. “Things will continue to go out of balance until we start really feeling the outcomes of that hard reality. Many are already, but we’ve been largely sheltered by our relative wealth and stability in this country. That’s the saddest thing, those who are least responsible for climate change will be ones to suffer first and hardest,” Miriama says. “So I’m guided by understanding my privilege, the wish to give back, to share that this is a journey of joy, not sacrifice – although in sacrifice is often where the joy lies.”
