Mervyn McLean traditional music of Aitutaki and Mangaia, Cook Islands recordings

Mervyn McLean was a prominent ethnomusicologist and founding director of the Archive of Māori and Pacific Music.

Born in Invercargill, McLean attended Otago University in the late 1950s, where he studied for a Master of Arts in History and Literature of Music. It was during this time he heard waiata recordings from the Māori Purposes Fund Board and decided to pursue the topic for his thesis. After successfully completing his Masters, he went on to a PhD which he completed in 1965.

On completion of the PhD, McLean left New Zealand on a three-year post-doctoral fellowship, during which time he travelled to Indiana University to study with Alan P. Merriam, a pioneer in the anthropology of music; conducted field work on Aitutaki and Mangaia in the Cook Islands; and took an appointment for a semester at the Music Department at the University of Hawai’i.

Offered a fellowship by Bruce Biggs at the University of Auckland, McLean returned to New Zealand and commenced the role in 1969. Here he taught courses in the Anthropology, Music, and Māori Studies departments, as well as being the founding director of the Archive, becoming an associate professor in 1975.

McLean retired from the University of Auckland in 1992 and passed at the age of 92 on July 8, 2022.