Barbara Dreaver has spent decades moving towards stories others walk away from. As one of New Zealand's most respected journalists and TVNZ's Pacific correspondent, she has been detained in Fiji, witnessed children in crisis across the Pacific and stood in places where telling the truth was actively discouraged.

In this kōrero, Petra and Barbara sit down properly for the first time, and the conversation is exactly what you'd hope for. Barbara talks about growing up barefoot in a loving Pacific family with no money and yet extraordinary richness. What it means to carry both sides of her whakapapa (Kiwi father, Pacific Islander mother), into a career built on giving voice to people who rarely get one. 

Her book, Be Brave, is the record of that work and an invitation to the rest of us to believe in the power of telling the truth and find our own why. She talks about the publisher who told her there was no interest in Pacific stories (the book is already going to a second edition), and the moments across her career where she's had to reach deep to keep going.

They get into what it really means to be brave, not the absence of fear, rather knowing your why clearly enough to walk through discomfort. Barbara talks about the logging company she exposed in Vanuatu, the adoption agency trafficking children from Samoa to the US, and the night she spent locked in a Fijian detention centre not knowing what she would face in the morning.

Barbara also speaks, with great care, about losing her brother Andrew to suicide, the guilt that follows, the complicated layers of grief, and why she believes his life should never be defined by how it ended.

This is a conversation about courage, Pacific identity, the power of community, and finding her happiest season yet in mid-life!

This episode contains discussion of sexual abuse, incarceration, suicide, and other distressing content, including the trafficking of children. Please take care as you listen.

If you need support:

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text 4357 — available 24/71737 — Call or text to speak with a trained counsellor, any timeSuicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) — available 24/7Skylight (supporting those bereaved by suicide): 0800 299 100Safe to Talk (sexual harm): 0800 044 334 or text 4334 — available 24/7

Barbara Dreaver's book Be Brave is available now.

Support the show: greyareas.nz/support 

Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker.

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