State Of Affairs Rewa's Role Model

Why the Reporter Credits Her Dad for Her Rise to the Top
 

- Amy Prebble

If you do an internet search on Rewa Harriman, the first thing that comes up is a video of The Hui reporter chatting with US mega-star Oprah Winfrey.

Rewa was doing a live cross for Maori news programme Te KaÌ„ea at Orakei Marae in 2015 and had no idea if she’d get a chance to talk to the legend.

“When I started my cross, I wasn’t sure whether or not she would be coming,” she says. “So I finished my sentence and just hoped that when I turned, she’d be there. It so happened that it worked out perfectly.”

Rewa then proceeded to carry off an impromptu interview with the world’s most famous talk-show host with the same aplomb that saw her rise to the top of New Zealand tennis as a teenager, before changing careers and becoming a respected journalist.

She credits her dad Ruka Hudson with laying the foundation for her success. The pair share a particularly close bond − Ruka raised Rewa and her four siblings on his own from when Rewa was seven.

“When my parents divorced, Dad took all the kids. His reasoning was, obviously he wanted us all, but he didn’t want his three daughters to be in a house with another man. He was adamant that wasn’t going to happen.” Ruka devoted himself to his children – never letting the fact that he had lost both of his legs in the Vietnam War hold him back.