c. 700–1200

Polynesian Diaspora

People have been migrating to new places since prehistoric times, to follow prey, to seek new lands for farming, to escape persecution, and to explore. Whatever the reason, dispersion of populations from their indigenous homelands (known as a diaspora) has been common throughout human history. One of the most storied and dramatic migrations has been the dispersal of people from Southeast Asia out to the many hundreds of islands and atolls across the South Pacific, a 5,000-year-long human migration generally known as the Polynesian diaspora.

Archaeological, genetic, cultural, and linguistic clues are used by scientists to try to piece together the series of voyages and circumstances that led to the settlement of the South Pacific. Initial migration appears to have been from the areas around today’s Taiwan and Indonesia first into Melanesia (islands immediately north and northeast of Australia), and then into Micronesia (islands north of Melanesia and east of the Philippines), over a few thousand years. Even though there is much debate and uncertainty about the details, over the next few thousand years additional voyages ultimately populated the so-called “Polynesian triangle,” from New Zealand to Hawaii to Easter Island, with the farthest east of those settlements established between about 700 and 1200.

Sustained human settlement of numerous small and widely dispersed islands across the South Pacific is a testament to the clearly skilled and experienced shipbuilders, navigators, and sailors of those societies. Many new colonies may have been settled by hundreds of people at a time (instead of just a few boats), suggesting a sophisticated level of planning and logistical coordination of efforts. Trade among the island societies appears to have been vigorous, based on tracing the geochemical origins of archaeological artifacts. Wars were waged, too, within individual island communities and between major island clusters, often precipitated by famines or droughts that disrupted the fragile island ecosystems.

Western exploration and colonial expansion into the South Pacific beginning in the eighteenth century would ultimately dramatically disrupt (or destroy) the traditional kingdoms and many of the other indigenous political structures of the South Pacific islands. Today, descendants of the original Polynesian diaspora voyagers and settlers struggle to maintain their cultural and sociologic heritage, as well as their economic viability, in an ever-globalizing world.

Drawing from around 1770 of Polynesian double canoes known as tipaerua, based on encounters recorded during the South Pacific voyages of British explorer Captain James Cook.