Native Hawaiians’ Closest Polynesian Relatives Live on Rapa Nui, Thousands of Miles Away, Genome Study Suggests
Nature World News | 14.10.2026 21:15
Of all the Polynesian populations compared in a new genome study, the people most closely related to Native Hawaiians are the Rapa Nui of Easter Island, roughly 4,400 miles away on the opposite edge of the Pacific. The study, published Oct. 8 in Science, suggests the founders of both islands came from the same ancestral group of long-distance voyagers, with deeper roots traced to Mangareva in French Polynesia.
