Kathryn OxborrowVambe

Affiliations

English

Scottish (Clan Sutherland)

Relevant Qualifications

Te Ara Reo Māori (He Pī ka Rere) – New Zealand Certificate in Te Reo (Reo Rua) Level 3+4, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

PhD in Information Systems. Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington.

MA in Librarianship (with Distinction). University of Sheffield, UK.

Expertise

Kathryn is a researcher and librarian. Originally from the UK, she moved to Aotearoa in 2010 where she developed a love for Māori culture and an interest in the process of non-Māori engagement with te ao Māori. Kathryn is the holder of Te Manawahoukura Rangahau Residency for 2025, and will be using the time to write publications examining research approaches and considerations for majority culture individuals undertaking research alongside Indigenous or other minoritised communities and their knowledges.

Key Contributions

  • .Oxborrow Vambe, K. (2025). When Sense-Making doesn't make sense: Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology applied to the question of non-Māori librarians in New Zealand making sense of Māori knowledge. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung | Forum Qualitative Social Research, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-26.2.4309

  • Oxborrow Vambe, K. (2025). How can managers in libraries support their teams to engage with mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge)? Journal of New Librarianship, 10(1), 100-115. https://doi.org/10.33011/newlibs/18/10

  • Oxborrow, K. (2020). "It’s not just a professional development thing": Non-Māori librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand making sense of mātauranga Māori. Dissertation, School of Information Management, Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17148506.v1

  • Oxborrow, K., Goulding, A. & Lilley, S. (2017). The interface between Indigenous Knowledge and libraries: the need for non-Māori librarians to make sense of mātauranga Māori in their professional lives. Information Research, 22(4), paper rails1619. http://informationr.net/ir/22-4/rails/rails1619.html

Meet the Team