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<div>Teenaa koe, Isidore, for your tribute to Bruce Biggs. We will
send it on to Joy, at 20 Cameron St, Takapuna.</div>
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<div>I have been busy in recent weeks writing and assisting with a
number of obituaries for Bruce but have neglected to post my tribute
on AN-lang. </div>
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<div>It was Bruce who made me a linguist. The world and I were thereby
both saved from a misfortune, as at the time I was en route to
becoming a third rate anthropologist of one sort or another. I always
valued Bruce's advice above anyone else's -- even his bad advice was
pretty good. No reira, teenaa koe e hoa. Thanks for your
guidance and friendship. Haere, haere, haere ki to moenga
roa.</div>
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<div>Below is the obituary I wrote for Auckland University News. It is
slanted towards his contributions to Maori Studies and the NZ scene.
Longer obits will appear in due course in Oceanic Linguistics and the
J. Polynesian Society. An excellent piece by Lloud Ashton, of a very
different (and much more humorous) style, is about to appear in Mana,
the Maori monthly magazine. Other quite lengthy obits appeared in The
NZ Herald (Nov. 4) and the Auckland Sunday Star times
(Nov. 5). Friends of Bruce who would like copies of the published
obits can write to me.</div>
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<div>Andy Pawley</div>
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</font><font face="Geneva" size="+1" color="#000000">Bruce Biggs died
in Auckland on October 18, 2000. He joined the University of
Auckland in 1951 as Lecturer in Maori Studies, became Professor of
Maori Studies and Oceanic Linguistics in 1969 and retired in 1983. He
headed the Department of Anthropology from 1969 to 1973.</font><br>
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<div><font face="Geneva" size="+1" color="#000000">Bruce was both an
outstanding scholar and an exceptional builder of academic
institutions. He was the leading figure in academic Maori Studies in
the 20th century. He developed, at Auckland, the first university
program in the study of Maori language, culture and literature,
compiled the textbooks for it, and trained the people who later went
on to head Maori Studies programs at other New Zealand universities.
Internationally, however, he is probably best known as one of the
founders of modern Oceanic linguistics. And he introduced
ethnomusicology at Auckland, recruiting Mervyn MacClean in 1968 both
to teach and to establish the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music in
the Department of Anthropology.</font></div>
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His books on Maori topics include<i> The Structure of NZ Maori</i>,<i>
Let's Learn Maori</i>,<i> Maori Marriage</i>,<i> The Complete
English-Maori Dictionary</i>, and (with Pei Te Hurinui Jones)<i> Nga
Iwi o Tainui: The Traditional History of the Tainui People</i>. He
also did original research on Fijian, Rotuman, Futunan, Futuna-Aniwa,
Marquesan and Rarotongan, and Kalam of the Highlands of New
Guinea. During the last 35 years he compiled a<i> Comparative
Polynesian Dictionary</i>, a huge work stored on computer and
circulated worldwide in electronic form.<br>
<br>
Bruce was born at Auckland on September 4 1921 and attended Mt Albert
Grammar, where Keith Sinclair and Rob Muldoon were contemporaries.
Although his father had Ngati Maniapoto blood Bruce did not learn to
speak Maori until his 20s. He went to Auckland Teachers College
then spent 1942-45 as a sergeant in the NZ army in Fiji, where he
learnt Fijian and did research on various dialects of Fijian. At the
end of the war he married Joy Hetet, niece of the eminent Maori
scholar, Pei Te Hurinui Jones. He and Joy went teaching at Te Kao, in
the far north, then taught at Ruatoria for five years, where Bruce
played rugby, studied part-time for a BA and greatly improved his
Maori.<br>
<br>
In 1951 Ralph Piddington, the newly appointed Professor of
Anthropology at the University College of Auckland, advertised a post
in Maori Studies and Bruce was persuaded to apply from Ruatoria
He recalled that there were more highly qualified applicants but he
got the job because he was the only one with a coherent plan. To
create new institutions and make them work, in a university as
elsewhere, you need to combine cleverness with common sense, ambition
with political savvy, and vision with organisational ability and hard
work. Bruce brought most of these ingredients with him; the others he
acquired under pressure in the not-so-gentle world of academia.
Maori Studies had never been taught as a university subject and some
senior academics in the Classics, English and French Departments
viewed it with disdain. Maori was, they said, the language of a
primitive culture, without a literature. A proposal to introduce
Stage II Maori courses was defeated on these grounds. The following
year Bruce and his colleagues were better prepared. They lobbied
colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and Bruce pointed out that the Maori
people had one of the great oral epic literatures of the world,
published as<i> Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna</i>. He and the anthropologist
Bill Geddes brought to the critical meeting an imposing pile of books
and journals relating to Maori language and culture and they won the
day.</font></div>
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In 1955 Bruce went to the University of Indiana to do a PhD in
linguistics, which he completed in two years. He felt a training in
modern linguistics would give him a cutting edge to develop Maori
language research and teaching. On his return in 1958 he co-founded
(with Jim Hollyman) of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand and the
next year initiated the first program in linguistics in New Zealand. I
was a student in his first linguistics course. He spent three
years at the University of Hawaii in the 1960s, forging longstanding
scholarly links with linguists there, before returning to Auckland in
1969 as Professor of Maori Studies and Oceanic Linguistics.</font><br>
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<div><font face="Geneva" size="+1" color="#000000">There were several
sides to Bruce's character, and some contradictions. He could appear
reserved, even dour. He did not suffer foolishness or hot air gladly
and his comments could be trenchant. </font><font
face="Helvetica" size="+1" color="#000000"> A couple of
years ago, when we were talking at his house in Takapuna, I
took a position on linguistic methodology that went against his
principles. "You've forgotten everything I ever taught
you!" he said indignantly. </font><font face="Geneva"
size="+1" color="#000000"> But under that stern exterior dwelt a large
heart and a rich sense of humour. He loved good conversation and
could be the best of company. And he gave encouragement and
wonderfully shrewd advice to many students. The list of his students
who went on to make their mark as academics is remarkable: It includes
Pat Hohepa, Hirini Moko Mead, Rangi Walker, Sir Robert Mahuta, Dame
Anne Salmond, Andrew Pawley, David Simmons, Wharehuia Milroy, Richard
Benton, Bernie Kernot, Koro Dewes, Merimeri Penfold, Tamati Reedy,
Pita Sharples, Parehuia Hopa, Margaret Orbell, Bill Tawhai and
Margaret Mutu, among others.</font></div>
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There was one considerable paradox. Bruce described himself as a
natural conservative who treated every new idea with the utmost
caution, and as 'simple-minded', meaning that he was uncomfortable
with complex ideas. Yet he was an innovative thinker, who was often
well ahead of his time. How could a person so distrustful of novelty
be such a considerable innovator? I think the answer lay in his
combining a good imagination with analytic rigour with intellectual
honesty. If, after carefully evaluating all the possibilities,
the best solution is a radical one, then so be it. <br>
<br>
Sensing that many Maoris wanted to take Maori Studies in new
directions Bruce retired three years early, in 1983. He did not
approve of some of these directions but he did not want to stand in
the way. He continued to do some teaching and his appetite for
research and writing remained strong even when his health began to
fail in the last few years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society of NZ in 1969, was for 15 years President of the Polynesian
Society and was awarded a CBE and OBE for services to education and
the Maori people.<br>
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