Te Rangi Hīroa

Life & Legacy

Sir Peter Henry Buck (c. October 1877 – 1 December 1951), also known as Te Rangi Hīroa or Te Rangihīroa, was a New Zealand anthropologist and an expert on Māori and Polynesian cultures who served many roles through his life: as a physician and surgeon; as an official in public health; as a member of parliament; and ultimately as a leading anthropologist and director of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii.
In his younger years, Buck was highly accomplished as an athlete. At Te Aute College he captained the high school's athletics and rugby teams and while at University of Otago's medical school he was national long jump champion in 1900 and 1903.
Buck served as a medical officer to Māori in the years following his medical training in 1905, before completing a doctor of medicine with a thesis on contemporary and traditional Māori medicine in 1910. In 1909 he was thrust into politics, serving as MP for the Northern Maori electorate until 1914. On recesses from parliament, Buck travelled to the Cook Islands and to Niue as a medical officer, where he developed his interests in anthropology.
In 1921, following service in World 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 Māori material culture—and eventually served as director of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, from 1936 until his death in 1951.