In the 20 years since the commensal model was applied to
studies of Pacific migrations and origins, attitudes of both scientists
and indigenous communities and their leaders have begun to
change. Pacific peoples are becoming more familiar with genetic
studies, the methods employed and their rights as participants and
collaborators in proposed research projects (Marshall, 2012;
Tupara, 2012). Researchers and their funders and overseeing institutions
realize that they have responsibilities to involve Pacific
peoples and their views in their research projects as opposed to
seeing them purely as samples (Wilcox et al., 2008). As a result,
there has been a much more positive relationship in research
addressing issues such as population origins and migrations, and
communities are now participating in research involving human
samples, both ancient and modern. In many cases, in our experience,
the research questions and the projects themselves are being
driven by or have been undertaken at the request of the indigenous
communities (Knapp et al., 2012).