Miriama Kamo

Miriama Kamo (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāti Mutunga) is an award winning broadcaster, writer, speaker, and environmental advocate.

Miriama is host of Māori current affairs programme Marae and former host of TVNZ’s flagship current affairs programme Sunday, and many of its news programmes.

Miriama is the Patron/Te Koruru of the Kiwibank NZer of the Year Awards. She was an executive judge from 2017 before stepping up as patron in 2020. Since her appointment she’s been establishing an alumni network, a partnership model honouring te Tiriti (the Treaty of Waitangi) in the awards, and a pastoral care model for winners.

Miriama is also a patron for EnviroHub, Bay Of Plenty and an ambassador for Pillars, which ensures the voice of children of prison inmates is heard, Charity Foundations NZ, Breast Cancer NZ, and Endometriosis NZ.

As a speaker, Miriama is an advocate working to empower women and families to understand and embrace what she calls ‘The 4 M’s’; menstruation, miscarriage, motherhood and menopause. She also speaks about the power of storytelling to transform and revolutionise. And about the environment through a Zerowaste lens.

Miriama co-founded a charity called Kotahi Rau Pukapuka (KRP) Miriama is a trustee for KRP, an organisation which is working to fill the gap for older readers and learners of te reo Māori (the Māori language) by publishing 100 books in te reo Māori. Kotahi Rau Pukapuka was launched by the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. Jacinda Ardern, in October 2019.

Miriama is a former board member of Endometriosis NZ, Save the Kiwi, and The Arts Foundation, Te Tumu Toi.

Miriama is passionate about supporting Māori practitioners in broadcast journalism. For many years she founded and ran a mentoring scheme called Whaitiri Mentoring for young journalists of Māori descent.

A mother of two, Miriama published her first book The Stolen Stars of Matariki in 2018, which was set to music composed and performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Miriama’s second book was published in 2022 - it is called Matariki, a Cluster of Stars, a Cluster of Stories, which she co-wrote with Professor Rangi Matamua (their followup book will be published in 2025). The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has set music to this book. Her third book, The Twin Stars of Matariki; Waitī and Waitā, was published 2023, followed by The Kai Stars of Matariki in 2024. Another two books in the series will be published in 2025-2026, along with the first book in a new series in 2025 called Humble Bumble, te Pī Mahakī.

To help build genuine relationships which deliver real results for Māori and Pākehā, Miriama and her husband Mike Dreaver deliver a workshop called Kia Hono: connecting two worlds with authenticity. This is aimed at government and corporate agencies who want to deepen their engagement with te ao Māori.

A passionate advocate for the environment, Miriama spends much of her time promoting the Zerowaste movement, encouraging others to reduce waste and engage with environmental issues.

Miriama Kamo is a popular MC and speaker, an in-demand presence in the event circuit of Aotearoa/NZ.