New Zealand’s Women of Influence awards are a major highlight on the country’s honours calendar. Each year, women who are making a difference to the lives of New Zealanders are recognised.  The annual awards, jointly presented by Stuff and Westpac NZ, consists of 10 categories, including arts and culture, public policy and young leader. The Supreme Winner is chosen from the winners of those categories. The winner of The Diversity Award, Dana Youngman, is a proud Samoan with roots in Lalomanu, Afega and Lotopa. She talks to the Weekend Observer*.

 “Mum (Mata) migrated to New Zealand in 1967 and was training to be a nurse when she met my Kiwi father Brian, a young policeman at the time in Auckland. They married, had me and my sister and by the early 1970s my entire Vao family including grandparents had moved over from Samoa,” says Dana.

“Mum grew up in Lotopa with her father Simo Mano Vao, born in Afega, and her mother Sala Vao, from Lalomanu. My grandparents were a big part of our lives growing up, but in my final year at primary school, dad made the decision that we would move to the country.”

Brian joined the force in the 1970s and in the early 80’s his police work saw him heavily involved in the Springbok tour and a series of horrific incidents, some involving children.  

“As the Avondale community constable, Dad was seeing things that made him fearful for me and my sister,” says Dana. Then the family home flooded and they lost everything.

“Dad had enough, packed us up and we moved to the town of Dannevirke near the Hawkes Bay, Central North Island where my palagi nana was from.”

In Auckland Dana felt she fit in, but in small town New Zealand, things were a little different.

“I was always physically bigger and louder than other young girls – I guess I spoke my mind. I remember Dad was called into my new school where he was told that I was far too opinionated and his response was, well her last school thought that was great.”

When Dana won her award last week, the judges praised her support of long running show Tagata Pasifika. Dana secured its first showing on mainstream prime time television.  The series was placed directly before the popular 5.30pm nightly news on Prime Television, meaning that a Pacific news show was in the lounges of mainstream New Zealand. It was a proud achievement for Dana.

“When Tagata Pasifika first came on air in 1987 and I watched from my home in small town New Zealand, it was a pivotal moment. There were people on TV that looked like me and back then, there wasn’t any other Pacific presence on tv at all.”

“As a teenager I became increasingly interested in the media and the saying if you can see It, you can be it rang true. The existence of the Tagata Pasifika series, showed me that a job in TV was possible,” she says.

Dana studied television production at polytechnic while living with her grandparents in Auckland, then started at Television New Zealand as a production coordinator in the 1990s. She moved quickly through the ranks and has been a television executive for several years now. The role entails deciding what productions to commission for mainstream television, which makes the championing of Pacific and diverse content more challenging.

“I’ve worked on so many different shows over my 25 years in the industry, and I’ve done my best at every opportunity to advocate for the inclusion of Pacific people. It has become easier over recent years as funding has opened up for more Pacific projects. We just need more Pacific practitioners in the mainstream,” she says.

“Storytelling is in our DNA and the few Pacific Producers, camera operators, editors, crew out there are incredibly gifted, but there are just so few.”

Her parents still live in Dannevirke, but Simo and Sala have now passed on. Sala was in Lalomanu fundraising for the church when the 2009 Tsunami hit. While she returned to New Zealand unharmed, the effects lingered.

“When Grandma came home there were a series of tsunami alerts in New Zealand which panicked her and she would call me desperate for me to be away from the water. It really was understandably traumatic for her.”

Dana thanked her parents and paid tribute to her two late Grandmothers at her acceptance speech for the award last week, emphasising the fact that these two were the real women of influence in her life. 

“Grandad had a large part to play as well. People would visit and share deeply moving stories of my Grandfather’s kindness back in Lotopa.  I learned about true humility from him, and this is probably why winning a prestigious award for my achievements has not yet sunk in.”

In her role as a Network Executive at Sky TV, Dana commissioned several New Zealand firsts including Pasifika-made drama series Teine Sa, Chinese bilingual drama Inked along with a Pakistani Iranian comedy Raised by Refugees.  The popular pacific comedy SIS written by and starring Samoan women for Sky’s affiliate Comedy Central was also commissioned by Dana.

In earlier years, Dana produced New Zealand’s first Pasifika documentary for primetime television – Life After Footy, Legends of the Pacific. This was the first Pasifika-made content to be nominated for an NZ TV Award in the Best Sports TV category. Previously, at TVNZ, Dana created the first children’s Pasifika animation series, Legendary Polynesia and Tales of the Moana and co-created TVNZ’s first bilingual Māori lifestyle series, Whānau Living.

She is also one of three New Zealand members of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys) and her commissioned hit series INSiDE won a 2021 International Emmy.

Her advice to people who want to make content for television? 

“The magic ingredients are authenticity, strength of story and strong, memorable characters. This is relevant to both the unscripted and scripted content genres.” 

Another important aspect facing the changing world of content Dana says, is the protection of indigenous stories.

“Story sovereignty is increasingly recognised and is important to the integrity of storytelling.  The stories of Samoa need to be included in this conversation. Who is telling her stories, where are they taking them, who profits from them, and are they accurate?”

“ I encourage Samoa to understand the value of it’s stories by treating them as they would a natural resource for the country, because that’s exactly what they are.”

Dana celebrated her win with her husband John and two young kids Lani and Thomas from her home in Auckland. Although she has a high-profile role, she is a mother first.

“My work has always played a busy part of my life, so being with my kids when I’m not working and spending time with my family is my priority.  This has spilled over into serving on their school boards and I am currently on the Waiuku Family Support Network Board. The little extra time I get, I try to contribute to the community, that’s my soul food.”

“I’m thankful the values my parents instilled are still strong in me, to work hard, to be respectful, generous, humble and kind – they are very much a big part of who I am.”

These values have supported a successful career, that has seen Dana move through high profile mainstream media, while bringing her community along for the ride.

“And as my Dad will tell you, I am still pretty good at expressing my opinions,” she adds.

*This story was provided by Priscilla Rasmussen with the photos for the Samoa Observer.