According to what has become the orthodox model of Pacific
settlement (Kirch, 2000), this early wave of migrationwas followed
by the arrival of the second ‘wave’ involving Neolithic, Austronesian
speaking ‘Lapita people’ and beginning around 3500 years BP. The
Lapita culture and presumably the peoples who carried it originated
in Island Southeast Asia and moved relatively quickly
through Near Oceania, interacting and exchanging genes with the
indigenous inhabitants there, before they colonized Remote
Oceania.