The Africa to Aotearoa project seeks to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species, specifically in addressing the migration history of Aotearoa/New Zealand, and answer age-old questions surrounding the genetic diversity of humanity.

The project, funded in part by National Geographic’s Genographic project, uses genetics as a tool to address anthropological questions on a global scale. At the core of the Genographic project is a consortium of 11 global regional scientific teams who, following an ethical and scientific framework, are responsible for sample collection and DNA analysis in their respective regions. The Africa to Aotearoa research project is being run by Lisa Matisoo-Smith, who is a Principal Investigator for the Oceania/Pacific region for Genographic. The project will collect samples from volunteers throughout New Zealand and sampling will take place in the five main cities of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Additional community focused sampling will take place across the country.

 As of July 2015 the sampling phase of the Africa to Aotearoa project has finished. We will be presenting results at various locations around the country in 2016 and 2017 and will be writing a book on the project which we hope to publish in 2017. All participants will be contacted when the book becomes available.

Note: All samples have now been processed and participants should have received their results via email or post. If you participated and have not received your results, email us and let us know. Feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions.