Warrior Wahine Mariama's Wise Words

The Kiwi actress is one feisty female on a role!

 

- Carmen Lichi

Nurse. Gang leader. Mother. Dancer. TV presenter. In a diverse, three-decade career that has encompassed everything from Shortland Street and Dancing with the Stars to dating show Finding Aroha, 2017 might well go down as Miriama Smith’s Year of the Feisty Wahine.

The 41-year-old mum-of-one had less than 24 hours between throwing off the shackles of playing ambitious, powersuit-wearing lead Brady Truebridge in TVNZ 2’s Filthy Rich before becoming the fierce force of nature that is lawyer Ngahuia Richards in the hit Kiwi-Aussie collaboration 800 Words.

“The day after the wrap party for Filthy Rich, I fell straight onto the West Coast beaches of Auckland to play Ngahuia at 6.30am!” she grins. “I didn’t even have time to exhale.”

Viewers have already seen the fear created by Ngahuia among the folk of fictional town Weld, where she recently returned to after a long spell in Auckland, following the near-death of her son Ike. Visibly flustered as they spied her in the supermarket, it’s clear the locals knew Ngahuia was not to be messed with.

But, muses Miriama, there are definite differences between her two most recent roles. “While they’re both strong, driven females who stand on their own two feet, Brady denied her small-town roots, whereas Ngahuia doesn’t,” explains Miriama.

“You can take the girl out of Weld, but her roots are firmly planted there. The pull of home really does affect her, not just because of her son, but because it instils in her a sense of belonging, which she hasn't found in Auckland – despite having a successful career, driving a Tesla and having a taste for the finer things in life.”