Hakaraia was raised in
Lower Hutt and started her broadcasting career at
Radio Waikato when she was 17 years old. When she was 20, she moved to Radio Aotearoa and later to the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. After some time living and working in Europe she returned to New Zealand and worked on
National Radio’s Māori magazine show
Whenua. In the later 1990s Hakaraia began researching, producing, writing and directing documentaries and television series. In 2004 she founded her own production company, Blue Bach Productions. Hakaraia has been a jury member at
ImagineNATIVE, the world’s largest indigenous film festival, and an executive member of Screen Production and Development Association and Ngā Aho Whakaari. In the early 2000s Hakaraia wrote a book for adult readers and another for children about
Matariki, a Māori celebration of the new year. In the
2022 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hakaraia was appointed a
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the film and media industries. == Filmography ==