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A Japanese man disappearing into the outback on a motorbike to learn the stories of Indigenous Australians is a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in a film on SBS, but this is how ANU historian Minoru Hokari began his PhD fieldwork.
 Overcoming the obvious difficulties of doing a PhD in his second language, Dr Hokari (right), who later upgraded from his motorbike to a distinctive orange four-wheel drive, was one of the first people to apply the techniques of anthropology to studying Indigenous history.
He recognised that Aboriginal concepts of place (including intellectual property rights that allow people primarily to tell the stories of their own country) and Indigenous theories of cosmology and morality — ideas that are often the preserve of anthropologists — were key to interpreting the oral histories of Australia’s first inhabitants.
Dr Hokari, who became a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre in 2004 and was planning to work on a project with the Australian Centre for Indigenous History (ACIH), bridged several cultures, helping bring stories of Australia’s history not only to Australians but also to Japan, through a newspaper column in his hometown, his own research and translations of colleagues’ work.
He lost his battle with cancer in May 2004, but managed to fight the disease long enough to complete his first book Radical Oral History, a week before his death.
Other work he left with trusted friends and colleagues to finish.
Memorial
Now his older sister, Yuki Hokari, and the Director of the ACIH, Professor Ann McGrath, are working to establish a permanent memorial to Dr Hokari in the form of a scholarship, which will help other researchers to do similar fieldwork.
“He was a model for anyone doing this type of research,” says Professor McGrath, who supervised Dr Hokari’s PhD.
“He was the most imaginative and creative student I had ever taught.”
The scholarship will be aimed at others undertaking high-level historical research, involving face-to-face interaction with Indigenous people, which was one of Dr Hokari’s strengths. He built up a close friendship with Aboriginal storyteller Old Jimmy Manngayarri, an elder from Daguragu (NT) and felt a weight of responsibility to pass on what he learned from his friend. Dr Hokari kept a photograph of Mr Manngayarri by his sick bed.
Since his death, Ms Hokari, a New York-based investment banker, has been tirelessly building the scholarship across three continents, using her language skills and contacts as a bridge in much the same way her brother did in his academic work.
For Ms Hokari and her parents, the fund has become a way to deal with their loss, celebrate Dr Hokari’s achievements and come to better understand his life. It also gives friends who had not had the opportunity to say goodbye — Dr Hokari never gave up hope, so never wanted to say farewell — a chance to play a part in honouring his memory.
“It makes us realise who he was and what he has done and accomplished. It brings out a different sorrow, but to work on something for him has definitely helped us cope,” Ms Hokari says.
“I read his PhD thesis after he passed away because he never got the chance to give it to me. He said he had a fulfilled life, but when I read his thesis I really believed it. I could imagine him smiling as he wrote.”
More:
endowment@anu.edu.au
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