Be Brave: The Life of a Pacific Correspondent

By Barbara Dreaver
Be Brave: The Life of a Pacific Correspondent

$45.00 ~ Print

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‘Some things I’ve seen I can never share.’
From a television journalist on the Pacific frontline comes
this candid, startling and intensely engaging memoir.

Barbara Dreaver has covered the Pacific for over 30 years. During this time the vast ocean’s many island nations and territories have gone from being largely ignored by world leaders to the focus of big-power rivalry. And Dreaver has gone from a reporter struggling to get a job to one of the world’s leading Pacific correspondents.
With warmth, humour and astonishing honesty, she takes you inside her gruelling, often crazy life as she and her TV team attempt to stay ahead of power plays, coups, resource grabs, criminal activity and natural disasters across the world’s largest ocean.
Fearless and determined, Dreaver has gained the grudging respect of some leaders and the undying enmity of others. She’s been locked up in Fiji, threatened in Papua New Guinea, detained in Nauru, endangered in the Solomons. At great personal risk she has exposed the Pacific’s methamphetamine trade and its shadowy figures. She has uncovered Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s role in a deadly Samoan measles outbreak, and borne witness to the machinations of China and the United States as they vie for dominance in the region.
Above all, Dreaver reveals what goes on behind the scenes as she faces her biggest challenges, both personal and political.

‘I started reading and couldn’t stop … a beautiful, generous, vulnerable book
OSCAR KIGHTLY, ACTOR, TELEVISION PRESENTER

‘An intimate account of an extraordinary career’
REBECCA MACFIE, AUTHOR OF TRAGEDY AT PIKE RIVER MINE

‘Dreaver’s powerful stories show why she is one of the best reporters in the trade’
MICHAEL FIELD, AUTHOR OF SWIMMING WITH SHARKS & THE CATCH

‘Stunning, powerful … Dreaver has written about the most significant events in the Pacific in recent decades. In doing so, she has endured racism and abuse. She is a standout storyteller.’
SIR COLLIN TUKUITONGA

Be Brave offers a rare look behind the curtain of the news and media industry from a writer who believes in and embodies the tenets of ethical journalism. … Dreaver writes with sincerity and respect for the people at the centre of her reporting and the seriousness of the subject matter, balancing this with moments of humour – often at her own expense. … A pacey, action-packed read.’
BOOK+PUBLISHER

ISBN: 9781927249932
Imprint: Awa Press
Pages: 298
Illustrations: 60
Published: March 2026
Category: Biography/Memoir, Essays/Journalism, Politics/Issues

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