The world's indigenous peoples have been subjected to exploitation, discrimination, dispossession, relocation, assimilation and in some cases genocide since contact with the Western world. They have been the victims of an invasion which has since secured their position among the lowest social qualifiers. For centuries, they have been ignored by nation-states throughout the world.

The importance of marine versus terrestrial foods in prehistoric Pacific and New Zealand diets, and the adaptation of the Polynesian diet to new enviroments, is examined through the analysis of the ratios in human bone of the stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur.