It’s hard to imagine someone as feisty and talented as broadcaster Mihingarangi Forbes being unsure of herself. She is an award-winning journalist and TV producer, but as a young reporter, she reveals, she was beset with self-doubt. “It took me years and years to believe in myself. For a long time, when I was reporting, I didn’t value myself enough. I thought I wasn’t good at reading and I wasn’t good at writing. I felt like a fraud for a very long time.”
Mihi had arrived at TVNZ straight from a te reo immersion programme at Waikato Technical Institute. She’d been spotted there by the producer of the Māori news programme Te Karere. A newsroom can be an intimidating place, but the journalists there at the time are among her most cherished mentors.
Explaining her anxiety, Mihi, now 51, says, “Part of the reason for that was my not having any formal journalism training. I remember at TVNZ, people would say, ‘That person topped their broadcasting degree – now they’re in the Press Gallery.’ I thought, ‘Darn, I’ve skipped a beat here.’
“I often asked whether I should go to broadcasting school or whether it would be a waste of time. I was told to stay put and learn on the job. Now, I sometimes actually steer people away from courses because learning on the shop floor is
