Journalist Indira Stewart looks back on her life in TV, including a shocking New Zealand Idol premonition, a haunting Breakfast prank and returning to Polyfest.
Indira Stewart first appeared on our screens as a 15-year-old roving reporter for Tagata Pasifika, presenting a story about Polyfest in Auckland. She returned to television a few years later, when she sang her way to the finals of New Zealand Idol in 2006. From there, a career in journalism took her to newsrooms in New Zealand and Australia, including a long stint on TVNZ’s early morning show Breakfast. These days, the award winning storyteller works as an in-depth multimedia reporter for 1News, covering everything from electric vehicles to religion.
Stewart’s latest TV project is extra special, as takes her back to where her journalism career began. ASB Polyfest: The Untold Legacy and ASB Polyfest: Fight for Survival are two new documentaries that mark 50 years of Polyfest. In each of the documentaries, Stewart goes behind the scenes of the iconic cultural event to discover the real story about how the festival began, and tracks down the students who came up with the ambitious idea back in 1976. She also discovers the sacrifices from the community that have kept the festival going for five decades, meets the matriarchs who have supported Polyfest since it started, and explores the many challenges that Polyfest faces today.
A Polyfest performer in her teens, Stewart describes making the documentaries as magical, and to return as both a parent and a journalist has given her a new appreciation of the festival. “It’s just been so eye opening and has given me such a profound gratitude for just what the power of community can do.” Ahead of the premiere of ASB Polyfest: The Untold Legacy, we chatted with Stewart about her life in television, including a shocking New Zealand Idol premonition, a haunting Breakfast prank and why she’s scared to watch Love Island.
My earliest TV memory is… Watching Pepsi RTR Countdown, especially ‘More Than Words’ by Extreme. I’m pretty sure Robert Rakete was hosting at that time.
The TV show I rushed home from school to watch was… Jem and the Holograms. It was a super feminist, empowering cartoon back then. And I did like the cartoon Doug.
My earliest TV crush was… Atrayu from The Neverending Story – the guy whose horse sank in the quick sand. I thought he was cute. I thought he was pretty slick, and I must have only been about six.
The TV moment that haunts me is… Being pranked on Breakfast when we used to celebrate “Today’s The Day”. Someone sent in a family picture, which looked like a mum and a dad – but they were actually two convicted murderers. We wished them a happy anniversary on air and were like, “we hope you’re enjoying your day”. Every now and then I am scrolling on Facebook and I still come across the video. It bloody haunts me to this day.
When we realised what had happened, we were absolutely devastated. It involved serious victims. When live television is happening, it’s super fast and when people email stuff in, you really mean it when you celebrate people. You feel really embarrassed that people would do something like that too, because a lot of people were affected – not just us, but the people who were affected in those crimes.
The TV ad I can’t stop thinking about is… The ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ police campaign. Those campaigns were so heavy but really quite powerful, and still sticks with me today. You don’t see ads like that anymore.
My TV guilty pleasure is… I wish I could say I have one, but I’m a bloody nerd. I love documentaries, I love true crime. My trash content would be scrolling on TikTok or something. Lately I’ve been watching Matlock – I really love Kathy Bates.
My favourite TV moment from my own career is… Interviewing Billie Eilish. That was amazing. I’ve interviewed the secretary general of the UN when he came here – and you realise the privilege of being able to interview some powerful leaders – but she would be my absolute favourite. She said I smelled nice. Her skin was like porcelain in real life. She was beautiful. I love her music and I was really fangirling. You just never really think you’ll meet those people, especially when they’re massive pop stars in America. I still buzz over it.
The most stylish person on television is… Namila Benson is a host and creator of this Australian TV show called The Art Of. She has earrings that are the size of a shoe. She’s a Papua New Guinea woman and she’s got this amazing curvy figure that she dresses up in all these bright colours. We have different channels in the newsroom and I always see her pop up. I just love the way she dresses.
My favourite TV project that I’ve ever been involved with is… This Polyfest documentary. Heaps [of projects] have been a privilege but quite tough work, as in you really care about people and it takes its toll, but this one has really filled my heart in so many ways.
My enduring memory from NZ Idol is… Being told by a staff member in week 10 that he knew who would make it to the top four. He named three of those contestants. So I waited as the weeks went by, and he was right – and the fourth person ended up being me. That really showed me the reality behind reality TV. He told me he’d come out of the boardroom and had seen this on the wall, and it was the top four. And I was like, “whatever”. I just kept it to myself and waited, and it was true, and I was the fourth person. I can’t say if that was a guess or what, that’s just what the conversation was.
To get to the top four was nerve wracking, but I’m so glad social media didn’t exist back then. It would have been nuts to go through something like that on social media. I think we were all just nervous. I’d grown up in a Christian bubble, my parents were church ministers, and it for the first time I was living away from my parents and family in a house full of – I say “heathens” now as a joke, because we all had a good time – and the exposure to different things was like “woah”. I learned a lot and I made lifelong friends.
My most watched TV show of all time is… This also sounds nerdy, but it’s the 6pm news.
My most controversial TV opinion is… I love on demand TV, but I really do miss the old days of appointment viewing. My childhood memories are that everyone in our home would be in the lounge at the same time to watch the same thing. I really, really miss that. And no spoiler alerts! We were all learning about TV shows at the same time and calling each other to say, “did you see Shortland Street last night?”
The show I’ll never watch, no matter how many people tell me to is… Love Island. I think it would drive me nuts. I’m always curious, but I’m also afraid that if I start it, I would just get so addicted. I’ve deliberately tried to stay away from it.
The last thing I watched on TV was… House of Gucci on TVNZ+. A really powerful, dramatic story about the rise and fall of the Gucci family. I was always curious about Lady Gaga’s performance, and she’s fantastic.
ASB Polyfest: The Untold Legacy streams on TVNZ+ from Tuesday April 1. ASB Polyfest: The Fight for Surival streams on TVNZ+ from Tuesday April 8.
