Abstract
Addison and Matisoo-Smith (2010) challenged the widely accepted model regarding the settlement history of Polynesia, specifically the Lapita only origin of East Polynesia, and identified possible drivers for the resumption of the eastward expansion of Pacific peoples around 1500 BP. In the last 15 years, there have been some significant advances in our understanding of the events that have led to the biological, cultural and linguistic variation we currently see in the Pacific. Here we will review the evidence, particularly the genetic and genomic evidence, related to Pacific settlement history that has accumulated since the publication of Addison and Matisoo-Smith. We then fully investigate these genomic data to see if we are any closer to understanding and reconstructing Pacific settlement history, and to identify any gaps that still exist.