Rest in Peace, Dr Niel Gunson

Walter Niel Gunson, MA (Melb. 1955), PhD (ANU 1960), FGSV (1962), FHGSC (1992), passed away peacefully after a long illness on 10 April 2023. Niel was a PhD scholar in Professor Jim Davidson’s Department of Pacific History, 1955-1958, and Fellow in the Department of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, 1962-1993, and then held a visiting fellowship at the ANU.

Niel specialised in the missionary and ethnographic history of Polynesia, with broad interests and expertise in European, Australian Indigenous and local history. Niel was an eminent genealogist and a renowned bibliophile.
Niel’s key work, Messengers of Grace: Evangelical Missionaries in the South Seas 1797–1860 (1978), is recognised as the foundation history of 19th century Protestant missions to the Pacific Islands.

During his tenure and afterwards Niel supervised and mentored at least 20 PhD scholars, many of them Islanders, some of whom contributed to Niel’s festschrift, Reality in Pacific Religion: essays in honour of Niel Gunson (2005). In tribute to Niel’s mentoring so many students and scholars over a lifetime of dedication to Pacific history, in conjunction with the Pacific History Association’s biennial conference, the Journal of Pacific History awards the Gunson Essay prize to promote the work of scholars at the early stages of their research.

He was a foundation member and long-time co-editor of The Journal of Pacific History. Niel convened the foundation meeting of the Aboriginal History journal in 1975, becoming its first chairperson.

Niel helped to set up the first Tongan history workshop at the ANU in 1987 which resulted in the formation of the Tongan History Association (now the Tonga Research Association) in 1989. After Bob Langdon retired from the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in 1986, Niel chaired the Bureau’s management committee until Brij Lal took over in 1993. 

Niel is mourned by his family, students, friends and colleagues to whom we offer our sincere condolences.