Story: Māori and television – whakaata

In 2006 Māori Television devoted all its programming on Anzac Day to the commemorations, showing war-related documentaries and special episodes of regular programmes. The audience of 215,000 people who tuned in was 552% larger than on a normal day. After the event, the hosts – former Television One newsreader Judy Bailey (left) and Māori Television journalist Wena Harawira, shown here after the press conference announcing the coverage – were widely praised. In Māori Television’s 10th-anniversary celebration programme in 2014, programming director Larry Parr remembered, ‘I had people ring me and abuse me that day because they were still in their pyjamas at 2 o’clock.’