Antony Hooper papers

Antony (Tony) Bramston Hooper was born in 1932 on the outskirts of Suva, Fiji. At age 10, he was sent to boarding school in New Zealand, attending New Plymouth Boys High. In 1950, Hooper entered the University of Auckland, gaining an MA in Anthropology in 1958, then went on to study at Harvard University on a doctoral studies scholarship.

As part of his PhD research, Hooper spent 18 months in 1960 and 1961 doing comparative ethnography on the Leeward Islands, Taha’a and Maupiti, in the Society Islands.

In 1964, Hooper took a position lecturing at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island and in 1966 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Auckland. During this time, he chose Tokelau as his research site in Polynesia. His decision was guided partly by Tokelau’s association with New Zealand, which resulted in the discovery of an Epidemiological Research Group that would be going to Tokelau in 1968.

Most of Hooper’s fieldwork was undertaken in Fakaofo, with preliminary visits in 1967-1968 and a nine-month visit accompanied by his family beginning in mid-1969. The World Health Organization's interest in their epidemiological research in Tokelau led to further funding that made it possible for Hooper to continue his ethnographic research while contributing to the health project. In 1971, he returned to Tokelau for nine months, also visiting in 1976, 1981 and 1986.

Hooper contributed extensively to the Journal of the Polynesian Society from the 1960s to 2010 and was a co-editor from 1967 to 1971. His interest in fishing led him to publish many articles on Tokelau fishing, and he played a significant role in the Tokelau language book Hikuleo: i te Papa o Tautai (2008), which was then translated into Echoes at Fishermen’s Rock: Traditional Tokelau Fishing (Hooper and Tinielu 2012).

Hooper resigned from the University of Auckland in 1992 to pursue research at the East-West Centre’s Pacific Island Development Programme in Honolulu, Hawaii. He later returned to New Zealand and died in Wellington in 2016.

Bibliography Huntsman, J., and Hooper, Antony. (1996). Tokelau:a historical ethnography. Auckland University Press.

Huntsman, J.(2017). Antony Bramston Hooper (1932–2016).Journal of the Polynesian Society, 126(2), 141–144.