{"id":234057,"date":"2026-01-15T05:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/234057\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T05:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:20:07","slug":"maori-journalist-and-playwright-aroha-awarau-dies-aged-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/234057\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori journalist and playwright Aroha Awarau dies aged 49"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in 1976 in H\u0101wera, Taranaki, Awarau was of Ng\u0101ti Maru, Taranaki wh\u0101nui and Niuean descent.<\/p>\n

Talented storyteller<\/p>\n

He began his career in journalism, working for TVNZ, M\u0101ori Television and various print publications including the NZ Herald<\/a>, Woman\u2019s Weekly and Woman\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

He was recognised for reporting that highlighted M\u0101ori perspectives and current affairs, and his work often aimed to create space for Indigenous voices in mainstream media.<\/p>\n

\"WriterWriter and playwright Aroha Awarau pictured in September, 2015. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n

Awarau was an accomplished playwright whose work received national and international recognition.<\/p>\n

His debut play, Luncheon<\/a>, starring Jennifer Ward-Lealand and directed by Katie Wolfe, won Best Play at the 2014 New Zealand Script Writing Awards.<\/p>\n

His second play, Officer 27, was a finalist at both the NZ Adam Playwriting Awards and the New Zealand Script Writing Awards in 2016. His short film Home later premiered at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto.<\/p>\n

His most recent work, the short film Puti<\/a>, tells the story of a M\u0101ori girl navigating hardship and sacrifice for her wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

The film was a finalist at the 2025 Wh\u0101nau M\u0101rama New Zealand International Film Festival and screened at the Indigenous and international film festivals, including M\u0101oriland and the Beverly Hills Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Beyond his own creative work, Awarau mentored emerging writers and advocated for greater M\u0101ori representation in the arts and media.<\/p>\n

Over more than two decades, he built a career that spanned journalism, theatre and film that consistently centered on M\u0101ori voices and stories.<\/p>\n

Details for Awarau\u2019s funeral are yet to be released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born in 1976 in H\u0101wera, Taranaki, Awarau was of Ng\u0101ti Maru, Taranaki wh\u0101nui and Niuean descent. Talented storyteller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85040,74,18919,95,93609,138672,5837,2534,6179,7126,156,5844,2720,111,139,69,67392,44549,5976,15487,102],"class_list":["post-234057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-85040","tag-after","tag-aged","tag-and","tag-aroha","tag-awarau","tag-battle","tag-cancer","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-entertainment","tag-journalist","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-playwright","tag-respected","tag-short","tag-talented","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}