Ancient DNA from more than 1,000 Polynesians reveals that Native Hawaiians share their closest genetic ties with the Rapa Nui of Easter Island, more than 4,400 miles away. Published in Science on October 8, 2026, the Stanford University-led study traces a medieval maritime migration path that bypassed closer island groups.
Pacific migration history has long rested on archaeology, navigation lore, and island oral traditions. A new genetic study published in Science introduces a hard biological map by analyzing whole genomes from across the region. Researchers found that despite Hawaii and Easter Island sitting roughly 7,000 kilometers apart, their indigenous populations share an unexpected genetic lineage.
Building Family Trees Across 4,400 Miles of Open Ocean
The research team examined identity-by-descent segments—stochastically identical stretches of DNA inherited from shared ancestors—to build genetic family trees connecting disparate Pacific islands. When the algorithms processed the data four different ways, the results surprised the scientists themselves.
Hawaii and Easter Island paired off by themselves in 61 percent of the reconstructed family trees. Mangareva in French Polynesia appeared as the next-closest connection, taking that pairing position about 10 percent of the time, while the Marquesas accounted for less than 3 percent.
We examined shared segments of DNA, genetic variation and thousands of reconstructed family trees. In 61% of those trees, Hawaii and Rapa Nui were paired together. We checked it four different ways because, frankly, we were dumbfounded and couldn’t believe it ourselves at first.
Keolu Fox, genome scientist and study co-senior author at the University of California, San Diego, via Staradvertiser
The analysis does not prove that ancient sailors packed their double-hulled catamarans in Easter Island and sailed directly north to the Hawaiian archipelago. Instead, geneticists and anthropologists suggest both island groups were populated by the same overarching ancestral voyaging population—dubbed Holomoana Nui in the research—with deeper historical roots tracing back through Mangareva and the Society Islands.
Founding Population of 800 Adults Settled Tahiti
By comparing genetic diversity within specific segments, the team estimated the demographic scale behind these remote settlements. A founding generation of approximately 800 reproductive-age adults arrived in Tahiti around the year 1070. The journey to Hawaii involved crossing thousands of kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, a feat Alexander Ioannidis noted in the context of Polynesian migration.
My group's paper out on the cover of Science!Native Hawaiians are most closely related to the Rapanui of distant Easter Island 😮Proud of it my students, the two co-first authors Cole Shanks & former MS student @edwardhuangc, and 3rd author @chrisoutho.…
— https://x.com/alexGioannidis/status/2108270457095147954
To sustain these voyages, medieval mariners loaded their double-hulled vessels with propagation stock and provisions such as bananas, taro, sweet potatoes, and chickens. These plants and animals provided immediate survival supplies upon landfall and formed the agricultural foundation for new island societies.
Uncovering Hidden Genetic Bottlenecks in Eastern Polynesia
Beyond mapping medieval maritime routes, the genomic data exposes acute medical disparities across the Pacific. Successive island settlements created severe population bottlenecks known as founder effects. Because each migrating wave carried only a fraction of the parent population’s genetic diversity, specific gene variants became significantly more common among descendants.
The study found that these cumulative founder effects in Eastern Polynesia far exceed those documented in extensively studied European groups like the Amish, Ashkenazi Jews, and Finns.
What we discovered is in the Eastern Polynesians, such as Native Hawaiians, the founder effects are more than an order of magnitude, so more than 10 times, larger than what we have in the populations of European descent we’ve studied so well.
Alexander Ioannidis, assistant professor of genetics and of biomedical data science at Stanford Medicine, via Stanford Medicine
Despite these profound genetic signatures, Native Hawaiian populations remain largely unrepresented in standard genomic databases. Researchers identified that globally rare disease variants—including conditions associated with kidney disease and blindness—frequently appear at notable frequencies across parts of French Polynesia, yet actionable screening guidelines do not exist for Native Hawaiians.
The study authors emphasize that addressing these health risks requires building community-governed datasets specific to Hawaii, operated under Indigenous data sovereignty principles, rather than relying on standard clinical screening tools designed for European populations.