Epeli Hau’ofa (1939–2009)

Definition

Epeli Hau’ofa was a Tongan-Fijian activist, writer, and scholar. Criss-crossing the Pacific in both life and work, Hau’ofa became one of its most prominent advocates. To many scholars of the Pacific, he is best known for his essay ‘Our Sea of Islands’, first published in 1993.

Epeli Hau’ofa was a Tongan-Fijian activist, writer, and scholar. Born to Tongan missionaries in the Australian-administered Territory of Papua in 1939, he attended school in Papua, Tonga, and Fiji before entering the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. After a stint at McGill University in Montreal and in the West Indies, he returned to Australia to study social anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra. His PhD thesis, directed by Marie Reay and Michael Young, was published in 1981 under the title Mekeo: Inequality and Ambivalence in a Village Society. After teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea, Hau’ofa became a research fellow at the University of the...