Meet Kath – Director Navy Museum

In this issue of Te Waka, we’re getting to know our new Director, Kath McGhie. She joined the museum in December 2025.

A ‘Westie’ by birth, for those that don’t know the term, or aren’t from Auckland, this means Kath hails from the West of Auckland, made famous by TV show, Outrageous Fortune! Kath spent her formative years in Kelston as one of nine children attending St Leonard’s Primary, Kelston Intermediate and Kelston Girls.

Her path to the job market didn’t follow the standard route, spending her senior years at high school caring for her Mum, who passed away from cancer when she was just 18. She left school with no plan for what she wanted to do. Fortuitously, a friend rang Kath to see if she’d attend an interview in her place. She thought why not? Clearly meant to be, she secured a job offer on the spot, beginning her first paid role as a Librarian in the Video Tape Library at TV3.

Several years working for TV3 and TVNZ followed, moving into various roles within programming. From broadcasting to production, she traded in her full-time contract with TVNZ for a short-term contract as a Production Manager with Touchdown Productions. She made reality TV shows for several years, later returning to TV3 and TV4 to manage their local content, including their flagship Inside New Zealand documentary series. In 2001, Kath decided the time was right to move overseas and headed to London with her partner. They had no jobs lined up, but a plan to study their shared passion for performing.

They were both accepted into a postgraduate acting course at the London Academy of Performing Arts. “We basically lived on the smell of an oily rag! But I treasure those years. Learning the craft, live theatre, black box comedy, and repertory theatre, performing Open Air Shakespeare in Cambridge over the summer. When you return to study after working for several years, you value it so much that you make the most of everything. A drama friend later started a theatre company, and I moved into directing, which I loved and still love,” says Kath.

Her now-husband had returned to music, his first love and had joined the Front of House team at the Science Museum in London. Needing a more consistent salary, Kath quickly joined him in a casual role, her first foray into the world of museums.

Life at the Science Museum opened up a whole new world for both Kath and her husband.

“We discovered a shared passion for museums that saw us both grow into senior management positions within the trading arm of the museum.”

“I’ve always enjoyed numbers and analysing data. Looking back, the path I took at the Museum was a natural place to move into, although it eventually took over my performing. The pace and competition in London developed my skills to a whole new level. There are challenges presented to you that can maybe only be found in large cities like London. I was responsible for a large visitor-facing team. Health and safety, exhibitions, Imax cinema, simulators, sales and information touch points, evacuation responsibilities, it was a big machine with a lot of moving parts, but we worked as a team.

“The museum, as part of the Science Museum Group, receives government funding. However, commercial revenue, donations, foundations, sponsorships and such is very much needed to meet museum costs. Effectively we needed self-generated revenue, so the pressure was always on to generate income. By the time we left London I was Acting Head of Commercial Operations with over three million visitors per annum and up to 18,000 visitors a day. It was intense but a wonderful experience,” explains Kath.

After nine exciting years in London, and with Oliver now 18 months and another baby on the way, Kath and her husband headed back to Auckland. They settled in Devonport where they’ve remained for 16 years.

“With two small boys I decided to focus on family. I spent the next few years heavily involved with Takarunga Playcentre; a beautiful centre where I made some wonderful connections and friends. We also had our third child. It was there that I met three amazing women who had also returned home or moved to Devonport with their families, all having had extensive careers overseas, and all passionate about science education. Together we formed The TestPod. We were advocating for a Science Museum to be established and through that journey we delivered a number of projects working with institutions, industry professionals, students both Primary and Tertiary in collaborative projects that brought them together in one place. Being an entrepreneur gave me another set of skills and experience that were invaluable for me.”

“After eight years and some amazing experiences, we decided to wind up The TestPod. We each moved on to other pursuits. I moved back into the museum world, taking a short-term contract with Tāmaki Paenga Hira, the Auckland War Memorial Museum as a Project Manager for their Public Programmes Team,” says Kath.

A few short months later, the role as Head of Department for Learning and Public Programmes became available, and Kath secured the role. Asked what she is most proud of during her seven and a half years at Auckland Museum, she highlighted a number of projects. However, she shares that her greatest joy and sense of achievement came from the team she created.

“I am very proud of the learning and programmes team we grew at Tāmaki Paenga Hira. The team reflected the diversity of our community. At the time we were the only museum education team able to our schools in te reo Māori. We delivered programmes founded in mārautanga Māori, aligned to Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. The team reflected a range of ethnicities, genders, ages and language abilities, including New Zealand Sign Language.”

Community has always been a strong focus for Kath, and she is most proud to have established and developed Te Taunga Community Hub at the Auckland Museum.

“Te Taunga was a public programme which answered a call from our communities to have a community space within an institution like the museum, and more importantly to be able to tell their own stories. The shift in how stories were told in museums was being scrutinised. Museums around the world were exploring their role. We invited minority communities, representative of Auckland’s diaspora to take over a space in the museum. Our role was to stand alongside them, supporting them to curate their own story, present their own taonga and if they chose, to express that story in their own language. It was a powerful experience for the communities, visitors, the public programmes team and the many museum professionals who helped us deliver each experience,” recalls Kath.

By 2025, Te Taunga had given voice to nine communities including the Solomon Islands, Mauke Island in the Cook Islands, Sudan, India, Ukraine, Brazil and Te Ra Ringa Raupa – Northland Weavers. The exhibition, Ko au, ko Ngāti Whatua had just opened when the gallery was closed due to the discovery of asbestos.