Clear and ever-present danger

‘All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house.” Aroha Awarau recites his favourite line from the movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple. Awarau was a nine-year-old boy and not safe in his own family of men when he watched the movie in 1985. He identified with the movie’s feisty Sofia, played by Oprah Winfrey, her words seared into his memory. And he instantly became a devoted fan of Winfrey, never imagining he would one day meet his idol.

Awarau grew up in the small Taranaki town of Hawera. His father, Wera, was a mechanic in the oil industry and his mother, Nina, was a manager in the Department of Māori Affairs. Life was tough for the boy