When Lotto star Sonia Gray agreed to host the new TV show Passengers, a docu-series about inspiring and harrowing immigration stories, the mum-of-two figured it’d be fun since she’s fascinated by cultural history.
But the actress didn’t expect it to turn into one of the most emotional experiences of her life. Not only did the four-part series make Sonia reflect on her own father’s journey to Aotearoa as an immigrant, but the topic of cultural diversity mirrored her family’s daily battle with neurodiversity.
“Making the show was quite phenomenal and I grew a lot from the whole process,” says Sonia, whose father emigrated from Zimbabwe by himself as a 16-year-old. “I learned about the hardships the ancestors of other New Zealanders faced and the sacrifices they made to better their children’s lives.
“It really reinforced how important diversity is. It’s a human thing to kind of shun people who are different to us, but if we cross the bridge and see how others live, we realise we are really all the same.”
The Lotto presenter feels enriched by her diverse TV roles.
The series unravels tales of Pacific, Asian and European immigration to New Zealand between the 1860s and 1940s as Sonia – who is a mother to 13-year-old twin daughters Thandie and Inez – takes descendants of these migrants through their family’s often-fascinating histories.
“Since my dad immigrated, it was interesting for me to see how these migrants got here and the culture shock they felt,” she explains. “Being away from the country of your birth is such a massive thing and for some, they never saw their families again. It helped me understand my dad better and I have real empathy for what he would’ve been through.”
While that experience was heart-warming, an episode about Chinese immigration was jarring for the former Shortland Street actress.
“Although we know there has been a history of anti-Chinese sentiment in this country, I didn’t realise the extent of it,” Sonia admits.
“Just reading some of the newspaper articles from the 1940s and ’50s, and seeing how the government encouraged it, really affected me.
“Earlier in life, part of my degree was in Mandarin and I spent three years with a lot of people of Chinese origin. I felt ashamed that I didn’t know this important part of our history, which was confronting.”
Sonia noticed similarities in the way immigrants were treated and how neurodiverse people are judged today due to being considered “different”. Last year, a documentary Sonia directed and presented called Kids Wired Differently opened viewers’ eyes to the challenges and triumphs faced by children with neurodiversity.
Sonia’s daughter Inez has been diagnosed with a range of conditions, including ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism spectrum disorder and ODD, which stands for oppositional defiant disorder. The former Dancing With The Stars NZ competitor explained in the documentary how neurodiverse children are perceived as naughty and that parents are judged for their kids’ behaviour.
Sonia’s glad Thandie (left) and Inez are growing up in a more tolerant world.
“But there’s so much richness to us as a country and all the different families add to that,” says Sonia. “After filming the episode about the Chinese immigrant, I came home to my daughters and wanted to tell them all about it because I thought they needed to know – but they almost knew more than I did!”
It turned out her girls had learned about Asian migrants in social studies at high school, where they’ve just started back for their second year.
“I felt really pleased we are teaching it in schools now because I did history right through school and it was almost like a shameful secretor not worthy of even being in history,” Sonia recalls. “Now the syllabus has changed and we are wanting our kids to know, even if parts are shameful. It’s important as it helps us understand the country we live in, which is beautiful and complex.”
Passengers also includes an episode about Bohemia, a region in Europe where a boatful of people left for New Zealand in 1868.
In the touching piece, a South Island tradie named Cameron finds out the history of his gran’s great-grandfather Benedict Remiger. In the mid-1800s and aged 12, Benedict came alone from Bohemia to Pūhoi, a small township north of Auckland.
“This boat-load landed with the promise of land ownership and it was completely unfarmable when they got here,” Sonia tells. “They had the toughest of times. But if you go there now, a third of the people living in Pūhoi apparently descend from those original Bohemians. It’s the most incredible place.”
During filming, Sonia learnt about a sub-tribe of Pūhoi’s local iwi called Ngāti Rongo, who took the Bohemians up the river on the final leg of their journey, essentially saving them from starvation over winter. In the actress’ eyes, it showed the importance of looking after each other, despite differences.
Passengers takes family members on a sentimental journey.
“All these immigrants often arrived to a New Zealand winter with nothing, but they worked really hard and now their stories are beautifully documented as a family taonga for the generations to come,” she enthuses. “It was a real gift to be able to join these descendants on such an emotional journey.”
Catch Sonia in Passengers at 8.30pm Tuesdays on TVNZ 1.
