TV trailblazer - KANOA'S SECRET WEAPON

How the young Squirt became a household name and a voice for her people

The Project presenter Kanoa Lloyd, of Ngati Porou and Ngai Tuhoe descent, is just one voice in a gorgeous new book, Nuku: Stories of 100 Indigenous Women. Providing a snapshot of courageous wahine, it is a social documentary allowing readers an insight to Oscar-nominated filmmakers, scientists, mothers and more.

Kanoa started her career as a children’s television presenter and is now one of very few wahine Maori to lead primetime mainstream television in Aotearoa.

“In my teens, my drama teacher told me about a job audition for a kids’ TV show made in Dunedin. It’s not around anymore, but it was quite bomb at the time. It was called Squirt and had a CGI penguin and fish. I got a job as the movie reviewer on the show, which meant once a week I got to watch movie trailers and tell people how the movie was going to be so interesting– ‘You’re gonna love it! You should definitely watch it!’ I never got to see the actual movies.