Oscar and Nate

 Made in Taiwan

Oscar and Nathan’s excellent adventure

The programme traces the _DNA_ made by Oscar and Nate to find where their ancestors _migrated_ from.  Nate is from ____Rarotonga____ and Oscar is from __Samoa__.  Oscar and Nate used DNA to show who their ancestors were who journeyed across the Pacific. Scientists at Oxford University use __Patterns___ to identify a person’s clan mother and father.  The __polynesians___ who navigated their way across the Pacific used _Stars_ to navigate by; Oscar and Nate are using their _taro_ to go backwards in time. 

Nate’s family are from Mahia on the __East__ coast of New Zealand’s north island and he went back there to open the results from the DNA test, where they were __welcomed__ onto the _marae_.  According to the scientists, Nate’s clan mother was from East Eurasia and America (not from __England__ as she thought).  Nate’s father is Maori.  

The next stop on their journey was 3000 km away in _samoa_ in the Cook Islands.  According to the scientists who study DNA, three-quarters of Maori and Cook Islanders __share__ the same ancestry.  Oscar and Nate went to the spot from where, according to local _indegonous_, waka like the takitimu set out to New Zealand some 700 years ago.  The languages between the two cultures are very similar and Oscar says that it is just like having an older brother. Their “origin” stories – how they explain where they came from - are very _similar_ too.  

Arriving in _samoa_ it was Oscar’s turn to open his envelope revealing his DNA results.  His family appeared_nervous_, unsure of what the science would show.  Samoans can _trace_ their ancestry back 12,000 years.   

On the next leg of their journey the pair arrived in Vanuatu and found another means of tracing the routes of their migration:_genes_.  The Lapita peoples journeyed across the Pacific thousands of years ago, leaving behind the pottery which they made.  The _pottery_ showed that the lapita people transferred their _tattooing_ skills to pottery.  _carbon_ dating allows scientists to accurately date when the pottery was made.  An archaeological dig showed that skeletons were well preserved in their graves.  For Oscar and Nate, the dig seemed tapu (_sacred_) but for the people of Vanuatu _excavating_the graves is a way of understanding their history.

The last _stage_ in their journey took them to Taiwan.  Again they were amazed at how similar they looked in appearance to the _pacific_ coastal people of Taiwan, like Niwa who showed them around.  In a _journey_ dedicated to pre-history, Oscar and Nate could see the _resemblences_ between the people, for example in the _facial_ moko.  Even some of the words used were similar.  The yam, _taro_ and coconut all came from here and were taken across the Pacific by early voyagers.  Taiwan was the beginning of their _traditional_ story.