Because of their isolation, the Hawaiian Islands were one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans. The first to arrive were Polynesians, probably from the Marqueses Islands, who reached Hawaii more than 1000 years ago, after a voyage of over 2,000 miles in large double-hulled boats using celestial navigation. Indigenous Hawaiians are related to other Pacific island peoples such as the Tahitians, Samoans, and Maori of New Zealand. More distantly they are also related to the peoples of Indonesia and the Philippines. This is borne out by linguistic and genetic evidence that indicates that all of these areas of island SE Asia and the Pacific were settled by sea-faring migrants who were part of the so-called Austronesian expansion that originated in Southern China about 5000 years ago. Moving west from SE Asia, one branch of Austronesians also settled the island of Madagascar off the southern coast of Africa. Overall, this is perhaps the greatest migration in human history, spanning an area of about 15,000 miles.
Hawaiians were isolated from the outside world until the late 1700s with the arrival of the British explorer Captain Cook. In the 1800s they were influenced by the British and then the Americans and Hawaiians finally lost their independence in the 1890s as part of American expansion into the Pacific (Americans also colonized the Philippines at this time.)
In the late 1800s and early 1900s many Asians from Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines migrated to Hawaii, often to work on American plantations, especially sugar. One result of this history is a modern population with much ethnic diversity.
Cameras: Canon 6D with 24-105mm lens / Olympus E-M5 with M.Zuiko 12-50, 40-150, 45 1.8, and 75mm 1.8 lenses.