Background
He was born in what was then the Territory of Papua. Hauʻofa was born of Tongan missionary parents working in Papua New Guinea.
anthropologist university professor
He was born in what was then the Territory of Papua. Hauʻofa was born of Tongan missionary parents working in Papua New Guinea.
He went to school in Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Fiji (Lelean Memorial School), and attended the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales. McGill University, Montreal. And the Australian National University, Canberra, where he gained a PHD in social anthropology, published in 1981 with the title Mekeo: inequality and ambivalence in a village society.
At his death, he was a citizen of Fiji, living in Suva, Fiji. He taught briefly at the University of Papua New Guinea, and was a research fellow at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. From 1978 to 1981 he was Deputy Private Secretary to His Majesty the King of Tonga, serving as the keeper of palace records.
In early 1981 he re-joined the University of the South Pacific as the first director of the newly created Rural Development Centre based in Tonga. He subsequently taught sociology at the University of the South Pacific and, in 1983, he became Head of the Department of Sociology at the University's main campus in Suva. Death Hauʻofa died at the Suva Private Hospital in Suva at 7 AM on 11 January 2009 at the age of 70.
A funeral service was held at the University of the South Pacific campus in Suva on 15 January 2009. He was buried at his residence in Wainadoi, Fiji.