DNA study reveals first Tongans originated from Taiwan, Philippines [1]
Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 22:30. Updated on Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 19:05.
A new DNA study by scientists at the Australian National University has indicated that the first people to live in Tonga and Vanuatu originated directly from Taiwan and the Northern Philippines. The study Named “Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific” bases its findings from DNA tests conducted on ancient skeletal remains uncovered in Tonga and Vanuatu.
According to the study, sea-farers from Taiwan migrated directly to Vanuatu and then shortly later to Tonga. These first “East Asian” populations later mixed with a second wave of migrants originating from coastal Papua New Guinea. The study indicates that the DNA of Polynesians is a mixture between these first East Asian and later Papuan migrants.
One of the researchers Professor Matthew Spriggs stated, “Today all Pacific Islanders are a mixture of these Asian and Papuan populations. The differences are simply in the percentages”.
"This is a truly remarkable discovery. Debates relating to the origins of Pacific Islanders have been on-going literally for centuries and particularly those relating to Lapita peoples, those who first colonized islands from Vanuatu across to Tonga”.
Professor Spriggs further articulated his findings in an interview with MailOnline where he explained that both Melanesians and Polynesians shared a mixture of Papuan and Asian ancestry.
He stated “In fact the difference between a 'Polynesian' and a 'Melanesian' is simply a question of the percentage of Asian as opposed to Papuan genes – If you have 26 per cent Papuan then you are called a Polynesian, when it gets up towards 50 per cent or more you are called a Melanesian.”
“I think it is time to abandon these terms and just talk about 'Pasifika' people and their origins from two great gene pools - the Papuan and the Asian First Remote Oceans,” he said.
DNA study
The study, published in the scientific journal Nature, reveals Vanuatu’s first people arrived 3,000 years ago from Taiwan and northern Philippines, and not from the neighbouring Australo-Papuan populations of Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands that had been in the region for between 40,000 and 50,000 years. Debates relating to the origins of Pacific Islanders have been on-going for centuries and particularly those relating to Lapita peoples, those who first colonised islands from Vanuatu across to Tonga.
The skeletal samples from Vanuatu were excavated as part of an Australian Research Council funded excavation project co-directed by Professor Spriggs and Dr Stuart Bedford of the School of Culture, History and Language (CHL), College of Asia-Pacific at the ANU, run jointly with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. The Tongan excavation was directed by Associate Professor Geoffrey Clark, also of CHL, ANU.
The unexpected results about Oceanian history highlight the power of ancient DNA to overthrow established models of the human past.