Obituary: Bruce Biggs

By ANDREW PAWLEY

Activist for the retired. Born in Wellington,
1917. Died in Auckland last week, aged 83.

Bruce Biggs was the most important figure in academic Maori studies in the 20th century.

He developed, at Auckland, the first university programme in the study of Maori language and literature, wrote the pioneering textbooks for it, and trained the people who later went on to head Maori studies programmes at other New Zealand universities.

He initiated the first programme in modern linguistics in New Zealand and was co-founder of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand.

The quality of his extensive publications on Maori and Polynesian linguistics brought international renown to this field of research.

No one could have predicted these formidable achievements 50 years ago, when Bruce Biggs was plucked from a school teaching post in Ruatoria to be appointed lecturer in Maori studies in the department of anthropology at what was then the University College of Auckland.

Maori language had never been taught as a university subject and the introduction of stage one (first year) Maori drew scorn from some senior academics in the English, French and Classics departments.

When Biggs sought to introduce stage two Maori courses he was opposed on the grounds that Maori was the language of a primitive culture with no literature - no Homer or Shakespeare.

He pointed out that Maori had created one of the great oral epic literatures of the world, published as Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna, and bluffed the meeting by bringing in a heavy pile of assorted books in or about Maori. He won a narrow victory.

Ironically, 25 years later, undergraduate enrolments in Maori far exceeded those in any of the European languages.

Students and colleagues who did not know Biggs well were often wary of him. He could appear dour and his comments could be trenchant. He did not suffer foolishness or hot air gladly.

But under that stern exterior dwelled a large heart and a rich sense of humour.

He gave encouragement and wonderfully shrewd advice to many students.

And he was a first-rate talent spotter. 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, Tamati Reedy, Pita Sharples, Parehuia Hopa, Bill Tawhai, Koro Dewes, Merimeri Penfold and Margaret Mutu, among others.

Although his father had Ngati Maniapoto blood, Biggs did not learn to speak Maori fluently until his 20s.

He grew up in Auckland, attending Mt Albert Grammar - where Keith Sinclair and Rob Muldoon were contemporaries - and playing trumpet in a jazz band.

He went to Auckland Teachers College, then spent 1942-45 as a sergeant in the Army in Fiji, where he learned Fijian and did research on various Fijian dialects.

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 he played rugby, studied part-time for a BA and greatly improved his Maori.

He recalled that when he applied for the lectureship at Auckland in 1951 there were better qualified candidates, 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. Biggs provided all these ingredients.

He also had a flair for new technology. He was quick to exploit the tape-recorder and computer in his research, and set up a well-equipped archive of Maori and Pacific Island language and music.

In 1955 he took his family to the United States for two years. Determined to base Maori language research and teaching on rigorous, scientific methods, he took a PhD in linguistics at the University of Indiana.

Back in Auckland, he recruited talented young staff, got busy producing textbooks and over the next 25 years gradually extended the Maori studies programme to the PhD level.

He spent three years at the University of Hawaii in the 1960s, forging longstanding scholarly links, before returning to Auckland in 1969 as professor of Maori studies and Oceanic linguistics.

His books on Maori topics include The Structure of New Zealand Maori, Let's Learn Maori, Maori Marriage, The Complete English-Maori Dictionary, and (co-edited with Pei Te Hurinui Jones) The History of Tainui.

He also did fieldwork on various other languages of Polynesia and Melanesia, chiefly Kalam of the Highlands of New Guinea, Fijian, Rotuman, Futunan, Futuna-Aniwa and Rarotongan.

For 35 years he compiled a magnificent Comparative Polynesian Dictionary, a huge work stored on computer and circulated in electronic form.

Sensing that many Maori wanted to take Maori studies in new directions, Biggs retired three years early, in 1983. He did not approve of some of these directions but 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.

He loved having his four children and his grandchildren around him and endeavoured to pass on to them his love of gardening and books.

He was for 10 years president of the Polynesian Society, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and was awarded a CBE and OBE for services to education and the Maori people.