Buck served as a medical officer toMāori in the years following his medical training in 1905, before completing adoctor of medicine with a thesis on contemporary and traditional Māori medicine in 1910. In 1909 he was thrust into politics, serving as MP for theNorthern Maori electorate until 1914. On recesses from parliament, Buck travelled to theCook Islands and toNiue as a medical officer, where he developed his interests in anthropology.
In 1921, following service inWorld War I, Buck was made director of the Māori Hygiene Division of the Department of Health. He continued to make a name for himself as an accomplished anthropologist of Pacific peoples—including as the leading authority on Māorimaterial culture—and eventually served as director of theBishop Museum in Hawaii, from 1936 until his death in 1951.
Peter Henry Buck was born inUrenui, in northernTaranaki, the only child of anAnglo-Irish immigrant, William Henry Buck. William's wife Ngārongo-ki-tua, whom he met at Urenui, had been unable to have children and, in line withMāori custom, Rina, one of Ngārongo's close relatives, became part of the household and produced a child for the couple. Rina died soon after Peter was born, and Ngārongo raised him as her own. He claimed to have been born in 1880, but the register of the primary school he attended records October 1877, which is likely to be correct.[1]
Rangi Hiroa in 1904
Buck's paternal ancestry was Anglo-Irish. Though he was largely brought up within thePākehā community at Urenui, Ngārongo-ki-tua and his great-aunt Kapuakore instilled a love of Māori tradition andlanguage in him.[1] Buck was descended on his maternal side from theTaranaki tribe ofNgāti Mutunga.
After Ngārongo's death in 1892 he moved with his father to theWairarapa. In 1896, he enrolled atTe Aute College, a school that produced many Māori leaders of the time. In 1899, he was nameddux and passed a medical preliminary examination entitling him to attend medical school atUniversity of Otago.[citation needed]
In his teens, his elders gave him the name Te Rangi Hīroa (also written Te Rangihiroa) in honour of an uncle of Ngārongo's, an earlier notable ancestor.[2] He would later use it as a pen-name.[3]
WhenTe Rangihīroa College at theUniversity of Otago was being rebuilt in 2020, the two-word versionTe Rangihīroa of Buck's name was adopted at the request of hisiwi descendants,Ngāti Mutunga, on the basis that it was Buck's preferred style.[4]
Buck did well at Otago Medical School, where he also succeeded in sport, becoming nationallong jump champion in 1900 and 1903.[5] He completed hisMB ChB in 1904, and anMD six years later. His doctoral thesis, completed in 1910, was titledMedicine amongst the Maoris in ancient and modern times.[6] During this time, in 1905, he married Irish-born Margaret Wilson. Their long marriage was often fiery, but was strong, and it was Margaret who often gave the impetus to Peter's career.
In November 1905, Buck was appointed as a medical officer to Māori, working underMāui Pōmare, initially in the southernNorth Island, then in the far north. Between them, Pōmare and Buck campaigned successfully to improve sanitation in the small Māori communities around the country.
In 1909,Hōne Heke Ngāpua,Member of Parliament forNorthern Maori died suddenly. Buck was singled out by Native MinisterJames Carroll to be his replacement. Buck accepted and was elected in thesubsequent by-election.[8] He became a member of the Native Affairs Committee. He did not seek re-election to the seat in1914, but stood for theBay of Islands electorate, where he lost by a narrow margin.[9] By this time, Buck had developed an interest in Pacific Island peoples, working briefly as a medical officer in both theCook Islands andNiue during parliamentary breaks.
During theFirst World War, Buck helped in the recruitment of a Māori volunteer contingent. Buck joined this contingent as medical officer, travelling to the Middle East in 1915.[10] He took part atGallipoli, later being awarded aDistinguished Service Order for his heroism. He later saw action in France and Belgium, before being posted to the No 3 New Zealand General Hospital atCodford,England, in 1918.
Returning to New Zealand, Buck was appointed as Chief Maori Medical Officer, and in 1921 was named director of the Maori Hygiene Division in the Department of Health.
Peter and Margaret Buck passport application (1927)
Buck gained a five-year research fellowship at theBishop Museum inHonolulu,Hawaii, in 1927. At the end of the fellowship in 1932 he was appointed the Bishop Museum visiting professor ofanthropology atYale University. He was promoted to Director of the Bishop Museum in 1936, a position he held until his death in 1951. He also served as a trustee and president of the board of trustees of the museum.[1] During his directorship, Buck applied forU.S. Citizenship, which was denied.[12] According to Buck, he “could not become an American citizen under the ... law for an applicant has to be over 50% Caucasian. The Polynesians are classed as Orientals in spite of anthropological evidence of their Caucasian origin so I could only show 50%.”[13]
Buck died in Honolulu, on 1 December 1951 after some years with cancer. His ashes were returned to New Zealand in 1953 and he was honoured with a ceremony at Ōkoki, near his hometown of Urenui, on 8 August 1954.[1]
In 1925, ethnologistHarry Skinner recommended that the inauguralPercy Smith Medal be awarded to Buck, but the University of Otago decided to award the medal to Skinner himself that year. Buck was awarded the following medal, in 1929.[14]
TheTe Rangi Hiroa Medal is a social sciences award established in 1996 given biennially by theRoyal Society of New Zealand. It is awarded for work in one of four disciplines: historical approaches to societal transformation and change; current issues in cultural diversity and cohesion; social and economic policy and development; and medical anthropology.[17]
One of the residential colleges of the University of Otago was namedTe Rangi Hīroa College in 2013 in his honour.[18]
Buck, Peter (1926),The evolution of Maori clothing (Memoirs of the Polynesian Society; v. 7), New Plymouth, N.Z.: Printed by Thomas Avery, under the authority of the Board of Maori Ethnological Research
Buck, Peter (1936),Regional diversity in the elaboration of sorcery in Polynesia (Yale University publications in anthropology; no. 2), New Haven, CT.: Published for the Section of Anthropology, Dept. of the Social Sciences, Yale University by the Yale University Press
The voice of Sir Apirana T. Ngata; The voices of Sir Peter (Te Rangihiroa) Buck, Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett (Bishop of Aotearoa), Te Puea Herangi [sound recording] (HMV PR-9) 10-inch / 78rpm, Wellington, N.Z.: His Master's Voice, 1949
Buck, Peter (1950),Material culture of Kapingamarangi (Bernice P. Bishop Museum bulletin; 200), Honolulu, HI.: Bernice P. Bishop Museum
Buck, Peter (1950),The coming of the Maori (2nd ed.), Wellington, N.Z.: Māori Purposes Fund Board; Whitcombe & Tombs
Buck, Peter (1952),Les migrations des Polynesians: les Vikings du soleil levant (The Vikings of the sunrise) [Bibliotheque scientifique], Paris, France: Payot
Buck, Peter (1993),Mangaia and the mission, Suva, Fiji: IPS, USP in association with Bernice P. Bishop Museum,ISBN982-315-001-X
Sorrenson, M.P.K. (1986–1988),Na to hoa aroha = From your dear friend: the correspondence betweenSir Āpirana Ngata and Te Rangi Hīroa, 1925–50 (3 vol.), Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press in association with the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust and the Māori Purposes Fund Board
^Arvin, Maile (November 2019).Possessing Polynesians : the science of settler colonial whiteness in Hawaiʹi and Oceania. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 87.ISBN978-1-4780-0633-6.OCLC1089781629.
^Wayne Ngata; Arapata Hakiwai; Anne Salmond; et al. (November 2021).Treasures for the Rising Generation: The Dominion Museum Ethnological Expeditions 1919–1923 (in English and Māori). Te Papa Press. pp. 1–368.ISBN978-0-9951031-0-8.OCLC1288331852.OL33957253M.WikidataQ124738173.
^Arvin, Maile (November 2019).Possessing Polynesians : the science of settler colonial whiteness in Hawaiʹi and Oceania. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 92.ISBN978-1-4780-0633-6.OCLC1089781629.
^Buck, Peter Henry (1985).Vikings of the sunrise. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 15.ISBN0-313-24522-3.OCLC11316496.
^Davidson, Janet (1978)."The Percy Smith Medal".NZ Archaeological Association. Retrieved25 November 2023.
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