Fear and Burnout At the Interface of Librarianship and Māori Knowledge in Aotearoa New Zealand
In Brief: This article presents some findings from a study of non-Māori librarian engagement with Māori knowledge. I asked non-Māori librarians (who predominantly identified as New Zealand European, a local synonym for White) about their journeys of learning and engagement, and Māori librarians about their experiences with their non-Māori colleagues’ engagement (or lack thereof). A key theme was fear on the part of non-Māori librarians. This acted as a barrier to engagement for non-Māori participants and created extra work for Māori librarians who were expected to pick up tasks related to Māori people and culture that their non-Māori colleagues declined to undertake. I suggest that when it comes to Māori knowledge, non-Māori librarians need to feel the fear and persevere, as well as being proactive to act as good allies to their Māori colleagues.
Introduction
Kia ora (this is a greeting in te reo Māori, the Māori language – definition from Te Huia, 2016) from Aotearoa New Zealand. I am a White British cisgender heterosexual woman of English and Scottish heritage. I was born in England but have lived in Aotearoa since 2010. I have spent the majority of the last twenty years working in and around libraries, and in 2020 I completed my PhD through Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka. When I moved to Aotearoa I was enthusiastic to learn what I could about Māori culture, customs and language, and was interested to observe the lack of enthusiasm in some of my non-Māori colleagues. When I had the opportunity to undertake PhD research, I decided to explore how non-Māori librarians learn about and engage with Māori knowledge. In this article I will focus on one key finding: The prevalence of fear in non-Māori librarians’ journeys of learning and engagement with Māori knowledge and the phenomenon of non-Māori overreliance on Māori colleagues in relation to basic library tasks involving engagement with Māori people or knowledge. I conclude by considering ways that non-Māori librarians can push through their fear and become good allies to their Māori colleagues.
A note on terminology
In this article I discuss Māori people and culture and as such will include words and phrases in te reo Māori. These will be accompanied by English language definitions in brackets after their first use, with the exception of the words Māori and te reo Māori which will be used henceforward without translation. Definitions are taken from Te Aka Māori Dictionary online unless otherwise stated. Government departments, organisations and projects in Aotearoa are often known by both their English and Māori names, and the two names do not always represent a direct translation of each other. When referring to these I use both Māori and English names, separated with a |. Whether the English or Māori term is given first is decided by common usage.
In the original research thesis on which this article is based, I used the term mātauranga Māori, a term with a breadth and depth of meaning. The definition I used was from Mead (2012) who described it as “…Māori knowledge complete with its values and attitudes” (p. 9). For the purposes of clarity, I will be using the term Māori knowledge throughout. A more detailed discussion of the term mātauranga Māori in relation to this research can be found in Oxborrow (2020, pp. 18-20).
In this article I refer to the country of New Zealand by its Māori name, Aotearoa, or the combined name Aotearoa New Zealand. I use these terms interchangeably throughout this article. I only use the term New Zealand on its own when referring to the mainstream or majority culture, or where it is used by participants or cited authors.
Local Context and Literature Review
Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand is a former British colony in the South West Pacific. The Indigenous Māori people made up 17.8%of the population in the 2023 census (Stats NZ | Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2024a). The largest ethnic group is New Zealand European (Stats NZ, 2024a). Ancestors of Māori settled in Aotearoa at least 500 years before Europeans began arriving in the early 1800s (Royal, 2012). In 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi was signed as an agreement between over 500 Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown, setting the terms for the relationship between Māori and the growing settler population, and signalling the beginning of modern New Zealand (Orange, 2023). Breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown began happening shortly after its signing, leading to Māori being dispossessed of the majority of their land (Orange, 2023). While there has been some redress for this, including a permanent Tribunal reporting on historical and present day breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Waitangi Tribunal | Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi, n.d.), the impacts of this for Māori are ongoing. These include disproportionate representation in health and social statistics including incarceration rates (Department of Corrections | Ara Poutama Aotearoa, 2025) and early death (Stats NZ | Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2024b). While there has been movement in recent years in relation to the visibility and acceptability of Māori language and culture, and increased Māori participation in public life, there are non-Māori in Aotearoa who feel very uncomfortable about these changes. An example of this is the New Zealand Centre for Political Research blog, whose contributors often complain of “tribal takeover” (e.g. Newman, 2025, paragraphs 13, 50, 53). This political pushback has been seen through supporters of the 2023 Coalition Government, whose legislative agenda has been described by commentators as strongly anti-Māori (see, for example, Clark & Hill, 2024; Paewai, 2025).
Members of the local White settler population in Aotearoa use different terms to describe their ethnicity or cultural identity. New Zealand European/European New Zealander is a commonly used term (Allan, 2001). Another term that is used for this ethnicity is Pākehā, a Māori term, the original meaning of which is not universally agreed on, as per the following definition from Te Aka Māori Dictionary:
New Zealander of European descent – probably originally applied to English-speaking Europeans living in Aotearoa/New Zealand. According to Mohi Tūrei, an acknowledged expert in Ngāti Porou1 tribal lore, the term is a shortened form of pakepakehā, which was a Māori rendition of a word or words remembered from a chant used in a very early visit by foreign sailors for raising their anchor … Others claim that pakepakehā was another name for tūrehu2 or patupairehe3. Despite the claims of some non-Māori speakers, the term does not normally have negative connotations. (Moorfield, n.d.)
In my time in Aotearoa I have also heard various definitions from Māori colleagues, including some who have told me the word can be used to describe all non-Māori. The nuances within the word Pākehā range from those who may believe the term to be offensive (as described in Black, 2010), to those who believe it denotes historical and spiritual connection to the physical environment of Aotearoa (Dyson, 2001; King, 2004) or an individual’s continued efforts to engage with te ao Māori (the Māori world, definition from Te Huia, 2016) (e.g. Jones, 2020). Non-Māori of any ethnicity may choose to identify themselves as Tangata Tiriti, who Bell (2024) describes as “…non-Māori people who are guided by a sense of their relationship to te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi and to te ao Māori in their work” (p.1). Due to these multiple understandings of the term Pākehā and the fact that not all interviewees identified as New Zealand European, I use the term non-Māori in this article to refer to interviewees and any other individuals in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand who do not identify as Māori.
Librarianship in Aotearoa New Zealand
At the time of the 2023 census of Aotearoa New Zealand, 5,730 individuals reported working in libraries across the country, including librarians, library assistants and library technicians (Stats NZ | Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2023). However, in 2025 only 853 were members of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa | Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa (hereafter referred to as LIANZA), the largest professional association for librarians in Aotearoa (LIANZA, 2025a).
Due to the small population of the profession and low levels of wider professional involvement, librarianship in Aotearoa New Zealand is more of a generalist occupation than in some other larger countries such as the United States of America. There are only three tertiary institutions offering qualifications for librarianship in Aotearoa: Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka, Open Polytechnic | Kuratini Tūwhera, and Te Wānanga o Raukawa (one of three Māori-led tertiary education institutions in Aotearoa). Of these institutions, only Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka offers postgraduate programmes including Master’s and PhD. It is not always a requirement to hold a qualification in librarianship to be appointed to a professional library role in Aotearoa, and there is no expectation for subject support librarians in tertiary education libraries in Aotearoa to hold or work towards a PhD in their area of subject specialism. Librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand do not always specialise in a particular type of library work and it is common for library professionals to work in various different types of libraries across their careers (see, for example, Stone, 2013). I am an extreme example of this, having worked in four different types of libraries as well as in librarian professional education over the course of the last fifteen years.
LIANZA
In their history of LIANZA, Millen (2010) writes: “Looking back, the most notable – even radical – developments [in LIANZA] of the past thirty years have been the progress made in the area of biculturalism” (p. 172). According to the literature, the library and information profession in Aotearoa is one of the professions which has demonstrated a commitment to engaging with mātauranga Māori from relatively early on in its history. Lilley (2013) states that the first mention of library services for Māori is in 1962 when the Māori Library Services Committee was formed to recommend strategies to libraries to help them engage with Māori. The report of the committee was produced in 1963 and published in the association’s publication New Zealand Libraries (Maori Library Service Committee, 1963). Millen (2010) states that focus on Māori issues began to strengthen within LIANZA in the 1980s. Both Lilley (2013) and Millen (2010) point out that the updating of the Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1985 to enable the Waitangi Tribunal | Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi to accept retrospective claims from as far back as 1840 led to increased use of libraries by Māori who used them to find evidence for their claims. Another key development in the profession in the 1980s which Millen highlights is the Saunders Report on education for librarianship in 1987. Te Rōpū Takawaenga, a group of students at Victoria University of Wellington, highlighted the lack of discussion of Māori culture and knowledge in the report and called for a profession-wide discussion. Te Rōpū Whakahau, the professional association for Māori in libraries and information management, was established in 1992, initially as a Special Interest Group of LIANZA, and later becoming an independent organisation (Lilley, 2013). LIANZA and Te Rōpū Whakahau have had a partnership agreement since 1995 (Lilley, 2013). This used to involve the inclusion of two Te Rōpū Whakahau representatives on the LIANZA Council, but in recent years has become a less-structured agreement with commitment to working together and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi (LIANZA & Te Rōpū Whakahau, 2024).
Professional Registration
Professional Registration was introduced by LIANZA in 2007 (Millen, 2010). According to the LIANZA Taskforce on Professional Registration (2005), the scheme was established to act as a benchmark for professional learning and development both within the library and information profession in Aotearoa and also to be compatible with other Anglophone countries with similar schemes such as the UK and Australia. Registrants must demonstrate ongoing professional learning and development across the eleven elements of the Body of Knowledge (LIANZA, n.d.-b). Body of Knowledge Element 11 (BoK11) is “Awareness of indigenous knowledge paradigms, which in the New Zealand context refers to Māori” (LIANZA Professional Registration Board, 2013, p. 9). The scheme includes mandatory revalidation (LIANZA, n.d.-a). Every three years, registrants must submit a reflective journal detailing their professional learning and development which must include two entries relating to BoK11 (LIANZA, n.d.-a). If candidates do not revalidate their Registration, it lapses (LIANZA, 2020).
Professional Registration has not gained the status of being a default requirement for employment in the library and information sector in Aotearoa as its instigators hoped. In a paper to LIANZA members, Steven Lulich, Chair of the Taskforce on Professional Registration, wrote “It is hoped that over the next two years, most of those working in the profession will join the scheme” (Lulich, 2007, p. 4). This has not come to pass, and it is now extremely rare to see a professional librarian role advertised in Aotearoa that lists Professional Registration as a requirement. The number of professionally registered librarians has been trending downwards for several years, with LIANZA reporting just 303 professionally registered librarians as of January 2026 (LIANZA, 2026). LIANZA is looking to increase interest in Professional Registration and the Bodies of Knowledge by incorporating them in the new Te Tōtara Workforce Capability Framework (LIANZA, n.d.-b) (Tōtara is a type of native tree).
Research on Libraries and Indigenous Knowledge in Aotearoa
While there is tangible commitment to biculturalism and mātauranga Māori from the library and information profession in Aotearoa as represented by LIANZA and other professional groups, there are still a number of issues of concern related to library and information professionals’ engagement with these topics highlighted in the small body of literature addressing libraries and Indigenous knowledge in Aotearoa.
Irwin and Katene (1989), in a study highlighting the dearth of tribal-specific information in libraries and the difficulties experienced by Māori trying to find that information, highlight the role to be played by libraries in partnering with Māori to alleviate some of the social disadvantages that they face. Irwin and Katene argue that knowledge is power and, therefore, access to knowledge is potential power. Social statistics at the time alluded to the fact that Māori were disempowered, and the authors argued that one possible reason for this is denial of access to knowledge. “Librarians are in a position of power where they can provide open access to knowledge, or they can deny this” (pp. 23-4). While this study is old and there is likely to have been some improvement in the intervening years, statistics show that Māori still experience greater levels of social disadvantage than non-Māori, as discussed above.
Tuhou (2011) identifies a number of barriers preventing Māori tertiary students from engaging with the university library. A lot of these are physical, with one group likening the atmosphere of the library to a prison, but staff were also a factor. Tuhou recommends cultural awareness training for staff to help them engage appropriately with Māori students, and for all staff to have the skills and confidence to answer reference questions asked by Māori students. Ritchie (2013) also noted that Māori students may experience barriers preventing them from engaging with the university library.
Bryant’s (2015) investigation of Ngā Ūpoko Tukutuku | Māori Subject Headings found that while there were several positive developments, much work is still needed for librarians to fully integrate the headings in their cataloguing, reference, and information literacy practices. Bryant highlights training as a key issue in increasing the use of the headings by librarians, and the majority of participants expressed the desire for more training than they had already had.
Focus in these studies has mainly been on Māori experience of libraries and the challenges faced by non-Māori librarians in engaging well with various aspects of Māori knowledge. Prior to my study, no research has investigated the process of non-Māori librarian engagement with Māori knowledge.
Methodology
This article highlights some findings from a larger research project investigating the journeys of non-Māori librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand seeking to learn about and engage with Māori knowledge. To frame these findings in context I will give some background about the broader study and the methods used. In this study I sought to answer my main research question, “How are non-Māori librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand making sense of [Māori knowledge]?” (Oxborrow, 2020, p.9) by undertaking interviews with non-Māori librarians and focus groups with Māori librarians. I used Sense-Making Methodology (SMM), devised by the late Professor Brenda Dervin and colleagues (e.g. Dervin, 2003) as a guiding framework for my study. The central metaphor on which SMM is based describes a process of individual sense making where the sense maker finds themselves in a Situation facing an information or knowledge Gap. They need to find a way to Bridge this Gap to reach an Outcome and continue on their journey (See Figure 1: The Sense-Making metaphor). In the interviews, I sought to learn about individual Sense-Making instances (Situation-Bridge-Gap-Outcome sequences) and asked questions that probed the different phases of the process: Situation, Gap, Bridge and Outcome, as well as factors which acted as either Barriers or Helps to engagement. The full schedule of interview questions can be found in Appendix 1.
Fig. 1: The Sense-Making metaphor. Copyright: Sense-Making Methodology Institute, used with permission, https://sense-making.org/ [Accessed: January 12, 2026].
Interviewees were recruited by advertising the study on an email distribution service and the LIANZA weblog. Due to a high number of responses, participants were selected using a maximum variability approach. This meant that the group was highly varied in a lot of ways, including amount of experience, types of roles and libraries worked in, and geographical location within Aotearoa. Of the 25 interviewees, there were 12 who worked in tertiary libraries, seven in public libraries, and six in school or specialist libraries. Of those working in tertiary libraries, six had previous experience of working in other types of libraries. One area in which the group was most similar was that the vast majority of the sample (23/25) identified as New Zealand European, along with one participant who identified as Asian and one who identified as a Pacific Islander. While New Zealand European most often refers to White people who were born in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is not a strict category and thus four interviewees who had immigrated to Aotearoa as children self-identified as New Zealand European.
In addition to these interviews I also undertook three focus groups with Māori librarians, recruited by personal invitation of some individuals that I had existing connections with, and also by approaching Māori colleagues for recommendations of other individuals who may have wished to be involved. Focus groups were undertaken in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) and Tāmaki Makau Rau (Auckland). Of the eleven focus group participants, nine were working in tertiary libraries and two in public libraries. However, at least four of those working in tertiary libraries had previous experience of working in public libraries.
I conducted these groups myself, with cultural advice from one of my supervisors, Associate Professor Spencer Lilley (whose Māori tribal affiliations are Te Ātiawa4, Muaūpoko5 and Ngāpuhi6). Focus groups were chosen as the data collection method since they can be empowering for participants, positioning them as experts (Dyall et al., 1999; Smithson, 2000). This was of particular importance given my identity. As well as observing cultural protocols during the focus group meetings to the best of my ability such as opening and closing mihi (acknowledgements), I also employed a thorough member checking process to maximise opportunities for participants to provide feedback regarding any concerns they may have had about misrepresentation in the research. As well as providing the transcripts to focus group participants for checking, I also distributed a draft copy of the focus group findings chapter to participants prior to submission of the final thesis. In the focus groups, I asked participants about their experiences with their non-Māori colleagues. The first question was as follows: “The profession of librarianship in Aotearoa has expressed a commitment to biculturalism since the 1980s – To what extent is the reality living up to the promise of the profession in terms of engagement with mātauranga Māori by non-Māori librarians?” Other questions asked about factors acting as Helps and Barriers to non-Māori engagement with Māori knowledge, as well as risks and benefits. The full schedule of focus group questions can be found in Appendix 2.
I analysed the data using thematic analysis (as described by Braun & Clarke, 2005), checking in with my supervisors throughout the process. Most interviewees discussed examples of other non-Māori librarians’ engagement or lack of engagement, in addition to their own journeys, and these were also coded separately. I used the stages of the Sense-Making process described above to inform my analysis of both interviews and focus groups. On completion of the analysis of each of the two data sets, I undertook a comparison between the two at the level of themes and sub-themes.
Findings
Interviews revealed several interesting findings about the Sense-Making journeys of non-Māori participants. Interviewees emphasised the large scale of their knowledge Gaps in relation to Māori knowledge, as well as highlighting Gaps in the areas of Māori and Libraries (which included aspects such as Māori history, Māori information sources and the treasured status of knowledge and information in Māori culture) and Language and Cultural Protocol. Bridges identified were Courses, Books and Text Resources and People and Situations. Both Helps and Barriers consisted of significant internal aspects, where elements of interviewees’ existing knowledge and experience or aspects of their personalities were either things that Helped them proceed or acted as potential Barriers. These were in some cases closely related; for example, fear was a potential Barrier in a lot of cases, but having the strength of character to push past that fear was also something that Helped some interviewees. Nineteen of 25 interviewees mentioned feeling good was one of the Outcomes of their experiences. This included having a feeling of knowing more, expectations being exceeded, and having a general positive feeling about the experience.
Focus group participant discussions included questions designed to elicit aspects of the Sense-Making process (see Appendix 2). A key Situational factor was non-Māori librarians having the choice of whether or not to engage with Māori knowledge in their work. Outcomes were largely seen as positive for both Māori (such as better service for Māori clients and more allies for Māori librarians) and non-Māori, for whom such engagement experiences could be transformational. Focus group participants also saw potential risks, however, such as Māori client alienation. This is when Māori customers experience shame, feel belittled because a non-Māori librarian appears to them to have more knowledge than they do, or feel that non-Māori are over-stepping when they engage with Māori knowledge. The importance of learning te reo Māori was highlighted by participants throughout (although no specific question was asked about this), as was the need for Māori knowledge to be normalised throughout the profession of librarianship, and bringing together existing initiatives to build momentum.
For further information on these findings, see Oxborrow (2020). In the rest of this section I will focus on the area of fear as a Barrier, as described by interviewees, and its flow on effect of overreliance and helplessness as discussed by focus group participants.
Fear, Overreliance and Helplessness
From comparing the two sets of data, a key finding emerged. Non-Māori interviewees often spoke about fear in relation to their own experiences of engagement with Māori knowledge or their observations of their non-Māori colleagues’ engagement (or lack of). The concept of fear included fear of the unknown, fear of making a mistake, fear of what others might think, or fear of causing offence. Fear was often described by interviewees as a barrier to engagement, and frequently resulted in work involving Māori clients or knowledge being passed on from a non-Māori librarian to a Māori colleague. One of the interviewees articulated this situation in the following manner:
One of the first kind of panic things that can happen as a non-Māori person and you see a Māori person turn up and they’re like ‘I want some information about a Māori issue’ You’re like ‘Ooh, can I find someone who’s Māori to answer that question? I don’t feel qualified! Ah!
None of the interviewees spoke about the impact that this fear, and subsequent passing on of work might have for their Māori colleagues. It was, however, something that focus group participants talked a lot about, with the understandable frustration coming through clearly in the following quote:
Participant 1: And, you get people who make up lots and lots in excuses ‘oh, there wasn’t enough preparation, ‘I didn’t have enough pronunciation lessons’, ‘I don’t understand pepeha7, ‘I went to my 101 Māori course and I don’t have the confidence or the competence to be able to engage in mātauranga Māori’
And so, for me it’s like ‘So what are you asking me to do? Hold your hand? Do you want me to hold your hand? Do you want me to give you all the resources that you can possibly get?’ There are thousands and thousands of level two, level four resources that are available to librarians – we’re a library, we’re full of them – and yet there’s no self-development, there’s no want to self-develop unless somebody…
Participant 2: Yeah, there’s no desire, aye?
This quote also indicates that the participants in this group believed that the concern about being qualified that was articulated in the previous interviewee quote was not the main barrier to engagement. Focus group participants considered it totally appropriate for non-Māori colleagues to seek support on higher-level queries where a greater depth of cultural knowledge was needed. However, much of the time, the knowledge required was at the level of attempting a basic reference desk request or consulting an online dictionary. One focus group participant gave an example in a tertiary library context where if a patron approached a reference desk with a basic question about a History topic, the first response should not be to immediately fetch the subject specialist (as often happened), but to attempt to help. Only if the query proved to be too complex should they request assistance. The role of subject specialist in tertiary libraries in Aotearoa is a lot less specialised than might be the case in other larger countries, so the expectation would usually be that any librarian on reference desk duty would make an attempt to answer questions on any subject unless it was clear from the outset that the topic was very obscure and would be very difficult to find information on. Focus group participants were talking about questions on basic Māori topics not requiring a high level of cultural knowledge, or in some cases even general questions from Māori patrons, which were being turned over to Māori librarians immediately.
Expectations of cultural support described by Māori librarians also involved broader things such as always being the one who is asked to lead or organise traditional welcoming ceremonies. One focus group participant described such expectations like this: “‘Ah, you’re the Māori, so you can look after anything Māori.'” Similar expectations for Māori to undertake cultural duties beyond their job descriptions have also been noted in other professions such as university teaching (Mercier, Asmar & Page, 2011) and science (Haar & Martin, 2022).
Librarians in Aotearoa, as in many places, seek to be active in terms of supporting diversity and inclusion. Wei and Boamah (2019) describe how Auckland libraries provide specific services to immigrant users. LIANZA (2025b) introduced a Freedom-to-Read toolkit to help librarians deal with book challenges. LIANZA also puts a strong emphasis on its attempts to create a more inclusive atmosphere for Māori, both as library patrons and also as fellow librarians, as can be seen in its statement of values:
Respect is at the core of our interactions, whether with our members, partners, or the communities we serve. We respect diverse perspectives, acknowledging that each voice contributes to the rich tapestry of our sector. Our commitment to respect extends to upholding the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, recognising and valuing the unique knowledge and cultural heritage of Māori.(LIANZA, 2024, p. 2)
While no doubt progress has been made in the intervening years since the profession first began to focus on Māori knowledge, librarianship still has a long way to go in terms of being a safe and equitable career choice for Māori. Māori made up 17.8% of the population of Aotearoa in 2023 (Stats NZ, 2024a), but made up just 5.6% of librarians and 2.5% of library assistants in that same year (Infometrics, 2024). Although there are probably multiple factors leading to this discrepancy, the findings of my research would suggest that non-Māori overreliance and self-perceived helplessness plays a part in it. As noted above, non-Māori self-perceived helplessness was viewed differently by Māori librarians in the focus groups, who believed that their non-Māori colleagues could be more proactive in learning about and engaging with Māori culture.
One of the problems that focus group participants mentioned in relation to the overwork experienced by Māori librarians is that some would become burnt out and have even left the profession as a result. Similar findings have been reported among Māori scientists (Haar and Martin, 2021). There are also writings about the experiences of Black and other minoritised librarians in the United States of America that indicate they are also expected to pick up extra diversity-related work on top of their substantive roles, and thus are unlikely to continue on in the profession due to stress and burnout (e.g. Hinton, 2023).
The situation in Aotearoa is complicated by the fact that there are sometimes non-Māori who go to the other extreme and operate beyond their level of knowledge and understanding and get things wrong (one example in a focus group was using Google Translate to create te reo Māori translations of complex library information, the result of which was completely inaccurate). Such examples were given in a context where cultural appropriation of Māori culture and knowledge continues to be common (University of Auckland, 2024) and te reo Māori is viewed as a taonga (treasure, anything prized) (Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga | New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence, n.d.) and so its misuse by non-Māori is problematic. The process of finding a balance between not opting out and not overstepping is an ongoing challenge that requires humility and perseverance. Non-Māori authors such as Bell (2024) and Jones (2020) discuss the complexities for non-Māori attempting to engage well with Māori. Focus group participants described non-Māori colleagues who had got things wrong and then refused to engage anymore after this because they had been corrected by a Māori person and that had upset them:
Participant 3: Or they’ve been, reprimanded is too strong a word, but they’ve done something and then been told it was the wrong thing to do and it’s
Participant 4: In the past, and they
Participant 3: really put them off
Participant 5: Put them off, yeah
Participant 4: yeah, they don’t want to do it any more
Participant 3: completely and they no longer want to have anything to do with anything Māori
Bell (2024) acknowledges that being challenged is hard: Let’s face it, it’s pretty natural to not want to be put on the spot, to be told you are wrong, or privileged, or have made a mistake, or are being racist. None of these experiences are very comfortable! (p.39)
The fact remains that to create meaningful change in the sector, non-Māori librarians in Aotearoa need to learn to engage with situations that feel uncomfortable in order to learn, grow and help make a better profession for Māori to join and remain in.
Conclusion: Feel the Fear and Persevere
As mentioned above, the cultural milieu of mainstream New Zealand means that meaningful engagement with the Māori world by non-Māori is largely still an individual decision. This is despite the existence of initiatives such as LIANZA Professional Registration and BoK11, which in the view of the majority of interviewees and focus group participants, had not created major change in the library profession in regards to non-Māori engagement with Māori knowledge. The lack of change is perhaps unsurprising given the low levels of professional engagement among librarians in Aotearoa discussed earlier.This being the case, there is often little external impetus for non-Māori librarians to keep going with their journeys of learning and engagement when other pressures or priorities crowd in, which means that they can lose momentum. We (non-Māori librarians) find it easy to forget that this is not an issue that our Māori colleagues can pick up and put down in the same way. As one of the focus group participants said of the attitudes of some of their non-Māori colleagues towards engagement with Māori knowledge: “It’s really motivated individually … it’s an option, optional…” They continued by describing an attitude they had seen in their non-Māori colleagues “…I’ll choose to be bicultural today, tomorrow I might not be.” The focus group participant finished their point by referring to Māori librarians: “…whereas we’re always in sights of it [living and working between two cultures].” Focus group participants also talked about the importance of non-Māori librarians being good allies, described by one focus group participant as having “…shared responsibility…”. They talked about several ways in which non-Māori librarians could help lighten the load for their Māori colleagues. These include running Māori events alongside or with cultural support from Māori colleagues, and advocating for Māori issues in the workplace so that Māori colleagues don’t always have to be “the angry Māori in the room” as one focus group participant put it, so they feel more supported and less worn down.
Ongoing effort is required to keep momentum going, and this can be difficult for non-Māori librarians to sustain independently. Focus group participants mentioned the positive impact that can come from attempting to create a culture of engagement as part of an organisation or library system. Leaders and managers have a key role to play in encouraging their teams to engage with Māori knowledge on an ongoing basis (Oxborrow Vambe, 2025). Since there is no guarantee of such consistent support, a key message is to feel the fear and persevere. This involves having the humility to accept that everyone makes mistakes and being committed to a continuing journey of development despite challenges. The fear may not ever fully dissipate, though it may reduce through repeated exposure to challenging situations. It was the willingness to keep on pushing through fear to continue engaging that made the difference for some interviewees, as discussed above. Future research could include case studies of good practice, and methods employed by non-Māori librarians to move through fear.
It is also important to emphasise that fear was not the only emotion discussed by interviewees in their journeys of learning and engagement with Māori knowledge. As discussed above, interviewees also discussed positive aspects of their experiences with Māori knowledge, with 19 of 25 interviewees discussing Feeling Good as an Outcome of their learning or engagement. One interviewee described their journey as “…one of the best learning experiences of my life, really.” So being committed to ongoing engagement with Māori knowledge can be personally rewarding as well as contributing to creating a more welcoming profession for Māori librarians. Creating opportunities for non-Māori librarians to share those positive experiences with each other could be a really powerful tool to encourage those who are more reluctant to engage with Māori knowledge to begin or continue their journeys of learning and engagement.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the many people who supported the PhD research on which this article is based, including all participants and my supervisors, Professor Anne Goulding and Associate Professor Spencer Lilley. My PhD was partially funded through the A.K. Elliot Memorial Scholarship. Much appreciation to the peer reviewers Professor Alison Jones and Jeannette Ho and the editor Brittany Paloma Fiedler. Thanks to my WWA paragraph editing partners, Anne Hiha and Sara Kindon, for your suggestions. This article was written during a secondment to Te Manawahoukura Rangahau Residency. Many thanks to the manager of my substantive role, Jenny Barnett, for making it possible for me to undertake this secondment.
Appendix 1: Interview Question Schedule
Tell me about your background in the library profession.
What do you find particularly interesting about mātauranga Māori?
Participants will then be asked to give an overview of the main occurrences in their story of learning about mātauranga Māori in order (the story of their process of engaging with mātauranga Māori). These events will be written down on a piece of paper to serve as a prompt for the remainder of the interview. A similar set of questions will be used to ask about the participant’s choice of 2-4 occurrences, as time allows. These questions will be used to investigate one instance at a time. The questions are as follows:
Tell me about [the course/experience/learning source]
What led up to this moment of learning about/engaging with mātauranga Māori?
What didn’t you know about mātauranga Māori at that stage?
Did you have any problems because of what you didn’t know? What were they?
How did you know where to go to find answers to your questions [for the situation you were facing]?
What were you trying to learn or achieve through this?
Did you have any big questions that motivated you to seek more information or knowledge? If so, what were they?
What helped you in the situation? How?
Did you expect what you learned to help? If so, did it help in ways you expected or other ways?
What hindered you in the situation? How?
Did you expect what you learned to present problems? If so, did it present problems in ways you expected or other ways?
What conclusions or ideas did you come to as a result of this experience?
What did the experience help you achieve afterwards?
The final phase of the interview will be talking about your whole journey of making
sense of mātauranga Māori and includes some questions about LIANZA Professional Registration:
How does your journey of making sense of mātauranga Māori relate to your sense of identity as a New Zealander?
How does it relate to your sense of power?
Has your decision to become/not to become or to continue/not continue being Registered been influenced by the inclusion of mātauranga Māori as a mandatory element in the Body of Knowledge?
[REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS ONLY] Has your involvement in LIANZA’s Professional Registration scheme impacted on your journey of engagement with mātauranga Māori in your professional life? If so, how?
Is there anything else you would like to mention before we finish?
Appendix 2: Focus Group Question Schedule
1. The profession of librarianship in Aotearoa has expressed a commitment to biculturalism since the 1980s – To what extent is the reality living up to the promise of the profession in terms of engagement with mātauranga Māori by non-Māori librarians?
2. In your opinion, what effect has LIANZA Professional Registration had on the extent to which non-Māori librarians engage with mātauranga Māori in their professional lives?
3. What factors help non-Māori librarians to engage with mātauranga Māori?
4. What barriers prevent non-Māori librarians from engaging with mātauranga Māori?
5. Matrix
6. In an ideal world, what would you like to see from individual non-Maori librarians in terms of engagement with Maori knowledge and culture?
7. What needs to happen to bring about change?
8. Is there anything else you would like to talk about before we finish?
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Endnotes
- Tribal group of East Coast area north of Gisborne to Tihirau. ↩︎
- Fairy folk – mythical being [sic] of human form with light skin and fair hair. ↩︎
- Fairy folk – fair-skinned mythical people who live in the bush on mountains. Although like humans in appearance, the belief is that they do not eat cooked food and are afraid of fires. ↩︎
- Tribal group to the north-east of Mount Taranaki including the Waitara and New Plymouth areas. A section of Te Āti Awa moved to parts of the Wellington area and the northern South Island in the 1820s. ↩︎
- A tribal group of the Horowhenua and northern Kapiti coast. ↩︎
- Tribal group of much of Northland. ↩︎
- Tribal saying, tribal motto, proverb (especially about a tribe), set form of words, formulaic expression, saying of the ancestors, figure of speech, motto, slogan – set sayings known for their economy of words and metaphor and encapsulating many Māori values and human characteristics. ↩︎