Continuity presenter and reader for weekend news on NZBC/TVNZ in late sixties and early seventies.
Marama Koea’s sense of humour has made her one of WNTV1’s most popular continuity girls. Her wit, mild and often self-deprecating, bubbles to the surface even on the dullest night; yet Marama, so self-possessed and in command in front of the cameras, admits to some nervousness, and says it usually takes her quite a time “to unwind after each session of television work.
Marama who comes from a well-known New Plymouth family trained as a teacher; and taught in Tokomaru Bay, and, after a trip to England and the Continent, in Otara and Balmoral, Auckland, and again in New Plymouth. Tahu Shankland, then station manager in New Plymouth, now supervisor of programmes at Head Office, gave her an audition for radio work in 1960, and she came to Wellington last September [1965], She was a “natural” for a continuity announcer, and she became the first Maori girl in that role for WNTV1. Marama’s problem is hair styling. She found it difficult to keep a good line by doing it herself. She discovered a couple of young male hairdressers in Wellington, one a Maori, who, she says, manages to style it. Keeping up with outside interests while on shift work is not easy. Marama likes to cook and sew and also to go swimming.
First published in 29 August, 1966
Martin was the first person to appear on colour television in New Zealand in 1973. She wore a mauve dress for the occasion, one which she had made herself.
Martin was also the last person to appear on the NZBC before it was split into two channels in 1975. She was one of the first Maori broadcasters.
After retiring from broadcasting in 1978, Martin went back to working as a teacher, according to NZ On Screen.
According to death notices she died peacefully on Monday 10 July 2017 in a rest home in Stoke, Nelson.
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