Red Hair

There are several stories about fair-skinned, red haired people pre-dating European exploration of New Zealand. One are the Māori “fairies,” the Patu-paiarehe, who lived in the misty mountains of the North Island. The interesting thing is that there were apparently Māori people who also had fair skin and red hair.

Apparently this phenotype doesn’t appear in other Polynesians races like the Hawaiians, which suggest that the genes arose specifically during the time period in which New Zealand was settled by the Māori, not before then.

One theory is that a group of Vikings landed sometime just after 1000AD, but the only source for that theory I’ve found so far has been crackpot conspiracy theories about the New Zealand government deliberately suppressing the information, which (conveniently enough) is why the information isn’t wide spread. Needless to say, I’m skeptical, but that still leaves the mystery of where these genes actually came from.

I’ll update when I find something new out.

1. 

   Malcolm Boura, British Naturism says:

   September 27, 2009 at 9:36 am

   There are blond genes amongst the Australian aborigines which may be relevant. For example http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2005/08/blonde-australian-aboriginals.php