00:04Easter Island is known for its moai statues but for nearly two decades the people who built them
00:09were thought to have disappeared due to ecocide with author Jared Diamond writing in his book
00:13about it in just a few centuries the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest drove
00:18their plants and animals to extinction and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and
00:23cannibalism however experts now say the genetic data points to another cause of their demise
00:28colonization and slavery the report outlines that in the 1600s the Rapa Nui people were not
00:34completely isolated but their civilization was quite small only around 1500 to 3000 people in
00:40fact their population was growing until the mid 1800s when Peruvians began coming to the island
00:45to kidnap slaves this is also around the time when colonists from Europe brought new diseases
00:49that killed nearly everyone in the end the new research unveils there were only around 110 of
00:54the Rapa Nui people left more recent research has also suggested that the same people reach the
00:59Americas before their European counterparts according to the international work group
01:04for indigenous affairs today some 1500 indigenous Rapa Nui people live on Easter Island
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