dead ends and false leads. But we all carry a key that can unlock a history long lost to us ` it's our DNA. 12 New Zealanders have had their DNA tested, and that's going to help them to solve old family mysteries, uncover ancient forebears and even find a fortune or two. Stay tuned for a fascinating ride. Copyright Able 2017 Hello. Being given the chance to unravel the ancestral recipe in our DNA is always exciting, because on the upside, it can link us to long-lost relatives and special moments in history that our forebears experienced. Waiting in the wings are musician Anika Moa and actor Erik Thomson. It's great skimming-stone territory. I kind of feel like I've got a right to be here, and, yeah, it's good. It's really good. Hi! I'm Anika. (LAUGHS) Hi! I really believe you only live once, and to do this journey is so genuinely thrilling. My relative, she's one of these stones. First up is Anika. There are some gaps in her family history, but let's hear what she knows about herself. (CLICK!) The background on my mother's side is she was born and raised in England, in Stroud, and she moved here when she was 14. My mum's a hero. She was my mum and dad. She's awesome, and she's still my best friend to this day. I don't know much about my Maori heritage other than that my dad was in jail lots. (CHUCKLES) When I was 13, I met my grandfather. He'd speak to me only in Reo, and he'd say 'Gotta speak Maori only, 'and I'm gonna tell you your whakapapa, and` but you can't write it down.' So I've forgotten it all, unfortunately. (DING! CLICK!) Anika. Hello. Anika Moa. Yes, that's my name. Welcome, welcome. Nice to meet you. Sit yourself down. Aw, thank you for having me. No, I haven't had you yet, but I will. (LAUGHS) Your mother's side. Yes. From Stroud,... Yes. ...in Gloucestershire. Yeah, Gloucestershire. I was born in Gloucestershire myself. Really? Are we related? What year was your mother born in Gloucestershire, do you know? Um, 1958, I think. Oh, she's just a child. Just a child. She's 58. Well, sort of. (CHUCKLES) Anyway, that's nice. She came to New Zealand as a 14-year-old. Yep. She ended up at Epsom Girls' Grammar, and she used to get teased for her (CORNISH ACCENT) accent, cos she had that kind of Cornish accent right there. (CORNISH ACCENT) That's right. That's right. So, she quickly, I think, left school (LAUGHS) quite quickly, and then, yeah, had all of us. We've got a world map of your markers, your DNA markers. If you care to look at the screen over there, we can have a look at those, and see how we get on. (CLICK!) Cool. Well, thanks to your mum, you've got a 45.1% British and Irish DNA. You have 5% French German,... and 1% Ashkenazi Jewish marker, so it's very likely that your mother's line had links to Germany. You also have 32% South East Asian,... and 16% Oceania, which is what we'd expect from someone with a Maori heritage. Now, there's a DNA surprise lurking on your father's side, but you're gonna have to wait for that, once you're on the road. Wow, thank you. Right, I'm gonna give you this little device. OK. And once you're out on the road, I shall be in touch with you... OK. ...and give you some more updates and information. Thank you. I'm very nervous, but I'm very excited to see what happens. - Well, you have every right to be nervous. - (BOTH LAUGH) Thank you so much for coming in. See you. Bon voyage. Ka kite. Well, Anika's in for a whale of a time unravelling her father's DNA, but her first port of call is going to be very much closer to home. My story is I am from England, mostly, and part Maori, and I'm probably from Ireland and Spain. That's my story I tell myself. But... I, um... I don't know, and this is the best way of finding out. (CELL PHONE CHIMES) Hi, Richard. Hey-ho, Anika. We've found some fascinating documents about your great-great-grandmother, Ngapiu Moa. She hailed from Hokianga. Now, to find out more, head to the Horeke Pub, where a package awaits you. CHUCKLES: Oh! Are you kidding me? (CHUCKLES) (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) (PEACEFUL ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC) This is the place` I used to come here from when I was 13, when I first met my dad. And, yeah, lots of memories of oysters and lots of hilarious cousins and horses and... beautiful bush walks. Yeah, this is definitely a place that I grew up and enjoyed being in. But (CHUCKLES) what am I gonna learn at the pub? Now, we've found a newspaper article from 1941 that mourns the passing of Ngapiu Moa, Anika's great-great-grandmother, and she lived to be 106 years old. Ngapiu was the daughter of Tipaho of the Aupouri tribe. She was a noted songstress, like me, and storyteller, with a great knowledge of Maori genealogy and rituals. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Oh, hi, Richard. Anika, look at this family tree. It shows Ngapiu's dad. His name was William Fowler. It's believed his ship pulled into harbour for repairs, and he liked the cut of Aotearoa's gib so much that he stayed. His ship came from America, which is where you need to head now to learn more. Wow, America. I don't know anything about my dad's family. I just` I actually used to fight with my teacher when I was at school. She'd be like, 'There's no full-blooded Maori in New Zealand.' I'd be like, 'My dad is, and he` cos he's real black. And he, like, has got a real` real no` like, 'a squashed nose like that, so he's full-blooded.' And I so would not expect to have any American... blood in my` It's so weird. (SQUEALS) It's very exciting as well. (GIGGLES) SOUTHERN ACCENT: And I'm gonna have to practise my accents. Later on ` Anika discovers her American connection links her to a wicked witch. When you hear the word 'Salem', you think of witches. And our latest recruit, Erik Thomson, thinks that he knows the script for his DNA adventure off by heart. I think I've got Viking blood. I think I have. (VACUUM CLEANER WHIRRS) (CELL PHONE BEEPS) Oh! To help keep you safe if there's an emergency, all compatible mobile phones are now able to receive emergency mobile alerts. (CELL PHONES BEEP) Huh? Oh! (WHOOSH!) (BARKS) So when you hear this sound,... (CELL PHONE BEEPS) ...stop doing what you're doing and follow the instructions. (BEEP! BEEP!) Hello. Welcome back. Now, the chance to take a peek at the road map of our DNA can reveal new surprises or confirm what we thought we already knew. Leading man Erik Thomson's career has been 'packed to the rafters' with roles ranging from Hades, king of the underworld, in the hit series 800 Words. But is his own story as varied? Let's see what he thinks he knows. - (CLICK!) I'm one of three children. My name is Erik, obviously. My older sister's called Helga, and my younger sister's called Ingrid. It sounds like we're from Scandinavia, but we're Scottish. Us kids were all born in Scotland, but we emigrated to New Zealand in 1974 and still live here ` except for myself. I live in Australia. I'm really, really hoping to be surprised. I think my whole family will appreciate just` yeah, just to find something that we didn't expect. You know, that, to me, is that little unexpected little twist. (DING! CLICK!) Erik, come on in. Welcome. Thank you. Nice to see ya. How lovely to see you. Thank you for joining us. Now, you came to New Zealand in... what year? We came here in 1974. I was 7, and we moved to Upper Hutt, right next door to Selwyn Toogood, actually, who was quite big at the time. 'It's in the bag'. How extraordinary. Yeah. We arrived in May. The weather was terrible. We figured we may as well have stayed in Scotland, and six months later, we ended up moving up to Tauranga, where we stayed. Mum's still there. OK, well, I'm from the Tauranga region as well, so... Yes. ...I'll have a cuppa with your mum a bit later on. CHUCKLES: OK. Now, you decided to become an actor at what stage in your life? You left school... No, I kind of` I'd done it all the way through school, and then I went to university, and I was still acting, and then someone said, 'Well, why don't you audition for the New Zealand Drama School?' and I didn't ever think I'd get in, but I got in, and then I graduated and then I started working in theatre. So I never really decided. I just sort of` it just kind of happened, and I've been doing it for 26 years. It's not really a job for grown-ups, is it ` dressing up and making believe? I'm just beginning to realise that now, and it's too late, you know? Yeah. (CHUCKLES) I can't do anything else. Right. We've discovered quite a bit about your DNA, as it happens, and we're gonna bring it up on the screen over there. Let's take a look. - (CLICK!) So, your DNA's 99% Northwestern European, with 69% of that being from the UK and Ireland. There's a small amount of French German and Scandinavian, which could be Viking. You also have a very unusual 0.1% of Yakut. Were you aware of that connection? I don't even know what it is. What's Yakut? Yakut are people of an ethnic group from Eastern Siberia. Wow. That's amazing. OK. Don't worry. We're not gonna send you anywhere like that. (LAUGHS) No, no, no. But I want you to take this, if you don't mind, and keep it with you at all times, and I shall be in touch with you in about 24 hours to give you some further instructions. OK. Thank you so much, Erik, for coming in. Thanks, Richard. Take it easy. It's been great to meet you. It's been a pleasure. Bye-bye. Well, Erik may not be headed for Siberia, but he's going to feel a stiff Arctic breeze up his kilt. I wanted to do this show because... yeah, for the family, just to find out a few things about ourselves. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Hi, Richard. Good morning to you, Erik. Hope you've packed your battle axe. Your first destination is Haugesund in Norway. (CHUCKLES) Right. Excellent. Wow. I think I'm going to Norway because I think I've got Viking blood. I think I have. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) Well, Erik is actually absolutely spot on, because his DNA does show that he's got Viking heritage, and now he's off to meet Marit to learn more about Norse culture. Can't get over how beautiful this place is. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) You must come back. I must, yeah. I've always had an affinity and been drawn to the old pine forests and the snow-covered lands, and knowing that I had a connection just` it all made sense to me, actually. Well, Erik, this would be a house where your forefathers would have lived 1000 years ago or something like that. 1000 years ago? Yeah. I look at this long Norwegian winter ` how did they entertain themselves? What`? Was it a lot of music? When they sat alongside a fireplace like this, they would tell stories. SOFTLY: OK. And this was not only because of entertainment, but it was also a way to keep... the past alive. So they told stories about kings and also about their forefathers. There was the sagas, is that right? Yes, the sagas and poems as well. Right. Yeah, and there is a poem called 'Havamal', which is really the tale of Odin. He was the god, you know, the supreme god, yes. Yeah. Cattle die, kinsmen die, and you yourself will die one day. But I know something that will never die ` the reputation of a dead man. One thing that will never die... is it my reputation? The reputation you leave behind, yes. Right, yeah. Wow. That's powerful, isn't it? I had no idea that Vikings were into poetry, because, to me, their reputation came from being fierce fighters. This was the thing that the Vikings became known for in the whole of Europe, right down to Southern Europe,... Right. ...was this battle axe. And they were much feared, were they? Oh yeah. In the south of Europe, you've got short swords. They're quite lightly dressed,... Right. ...and then comes somebody just under 2m tall with that. There are records, especially when you go down way into the south of Europe, of` the Vikings were used as mercenaries. Right. And there are records of, basically battles not happening when the Vikings turned up. It's a brutal weapon. So, my father always said that if he wasn't a doctor, he would have been a linguist, and, I think when he was in his teens, he decided he wanted to learn Norwegian, so be bought a English-Norwegian dictionary and taught himself. And, yeah, Dad would, at times, just... all of a sudden start, you know, speaking a phrase in Norwegian, just random, you know, old Norse. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Hey, Richard. Erik, you're about to go 'a-viking'. That was a term for a Norse overseas experience back in the 10th century. You're headed for a place your ancestors ruthlessly plundered ` the Shetland Islands. You'll be sure of a warm welcome there. All right. Thanks. After the break ` Erik feels the pull of his ancestral homeland. And Anika is on the trail of her great-great-great-grandfather. MAN: Says he's 19. Wowsers. 19, with a dark complexion and dark hair. 1 Songstress Anika Moa is on the trail of the American whaler who swept her great-great-great-grandmother off her feet. I so would not expect to have any American... blood in my` It's so weird. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) She's come to the old whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and archivist Mark is waiting at the whaling museum to help her uncover more of the story. William Fowler used to work on the whaling ships. He married a Maori called Ngapiu. That's all I know, really. I have the Charles Batchelor files. We got his collection, um,... 1870s. Who's Charles Batchelor? So, he was actually an amateur whaling historian,... OK. ...and he was on the board here at the whaling museum. Yeah. And he took these ridiculously meticulous notes on any single whaling vessel he could find. So this is actually their writing and everything. This is his writing. OMG. And it's every` So I'm assuming we just go straight to the word 'Fowler'. That's what we're gonna do in the database, yes. Cool, yeah. So we're gonna start where we can capture the most information. OK, cool. Yeah. So, the last name was Fowler? Yeah, Fowler. All right. You said William Fowler? Yep, William. All right. That's it. That's the one. There he is. OMG. William Fowler. So he was on the President II. Mm-hm. The rig was Bark, and it was the year 1849. Mm-hm. But it doesn't say his age. Well, it doesn't, but you know what? That's what the hard-copy crew list is for. Yeah, cool. OK. Well, let's find it. All right. Luckily, I know exactly where it is. Do you? (CHUCKLES) You're awesome. I do. Yeah. This is the 1849 book, cos that's the one that William Fowler was on. One book per year, and one voyage per page. OMG. And so he would write down... All neatly too. So beautiful. And this would have been just one of the voyages he was on. OK, there he is. William... So it looks like William J Fowler. That's cool. This is great. Mm-hm. What does that say? That looks like Rochester. What does that mean? Is that where he's from? That's where he said he was from. OK. Rochester. It says he's 19. Wowsers. 19, with a dark complexion and dark hair. But what would the dark be? Darker` (LAUGHS) This has interested me now. Yeah, it would be darker than light, but lighter than black. We're not talking, like, African-American. Oh, OK. Cos they` There's one here. Oh, that is interesting. What does that`? What was that? Black for black. Oh, OK. And the hair colour, they put 'W' for 'woolly'. (LAUGHS) It should be 'A' for 'afro'. That's not what they did. They put 'W' for 'woolly'. So this was the ship that went to New Zealand. This is the vessel he shipped on, yep. Wow. That's so good. This is the one. That's the one. Yeah. (SOFTLY) It's amazing. Mm-hm. (CHUCKLES) We got it. We got it, all right. (CURIOUS MUSIC) It would take years to get to New Zealand ` that's the hard bit. You know, and being on the boat in that museum and seeing just how small those boats are, it's incredible. Just to jump on a boat and trust that you're gonna end up somewhere so magical and mythical. You know how beautiful New Zealand is ` imagine jumping off that boat and seeing this beautiful land. And I can understand how he would have stayed in New Zealand. There's no way I would leave New Zealand. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Oh. Hi, Richard. How's it going? Anika, we have a DNA surprise for you. Your results show 1% Native American markers. Now, this may very well explain William's colouring. OMG! Wow. Actor Erik Thomson has discovered his Viking roots in Norway,... That'd do some damage, wouldn't it? ..and he's hopped across the North Sea to his mother's birthplace, the Shetland Islands. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) Shetland. My son Magnus is the first Thomson to be born outside of Scotland in the history that we know, and whenever I tell my daughter that she's half-Scottish, this kinda look comes across her face, I dunno what she imagines it's like up here. (CHUCKLES) Probably colder than she's used to. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Hey, Richard. Hi, Erik. It's very possible that your Viking ancestors came to the Shetland Islands with ill intent, but they stayed on and set up shop, and Dr Andrew Jennings is a Viking expert, and he's waiting for you on the Isle of Unst to give you the lay of their land. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) (GENTLE MUSIC) My mum was born in Shetland, so when I was a young lad, I'd come here to see my grandparents. All my family here were fisherman, so to be crossing these waters feels quite... nostalgic. Where does this road lead to? The ends of the Earth. The end of the Earth, yeah. Literally. Pretty much, that, isn't it? Well, I mean, that's one of the exciting things about Shetland. For thousands of years, this was the end of Europe. I mean, people didn't know there was anything beyond. Beyond. This was it. Yeah, right. What is out there, to the west? Well, nobody, as we know. If you went that direction, you hit the Faroe Islands, and then just beyond that... Is Iceland. Right. ...is Iceland. In fact, you're closer to the west coast of Iceland here than you are to London. OK, right. What's that little island there? That one, that's the very most northerly point. That's Ootsta, or Out Stack. 'Ootsta' ` is that Norwegian? It's an old Norse name. Old Norse name. Ootsta. Yeah. The Viking settlers didn't borrow any of the place names from the people that were here before. They just rebranded it. Rebranded everything, yep. Did they accidentally find Shetland? Were they looking for somewhere else? I think they knew where they were coming. I mean, it's not very far from here to Norway. You can get to Norway in a boat probably in two days with just one night. (INTRIGUING MUSIC) I've been a double immigrant in my life, actually. I went, you know, when I was 7, my parents took me from Scotland to New Zealand, and then when I was 28, I moved to Australia, so I've always had this sense of being a little bit aloof when it comes to my cultural identity. So going back and standing on that land and looking at those vistas, that just... It just, yeah` It kind of reconnected me to my past. So, we're sitting in the ruins of an old Viking longhouse, are we? Yeah, this is the house called 'Hamar', and it was excavated a few years ago. The bit we're actually sitting on,... Yeah. ...this was the original structure. It was a pit house, probably used by women to do their weaving. And the bit behind us, that's` Is it the master bedroom? Yeah, exactly. (CHUCKLES) A bit of privacy. It's clear that on your mother's side, there's Scandinavian... DNA. And does that qualify me to be a Viking, does it? Oh, definitely. Definitely a Viking on your mother's side. Oh, on Mum's side, OK. Yeah, you've got some unusual mitochondrial DNA, which you inherit from your mother, and she inherited from her mother,... Right. ...and so on, back into time. And the particular mitochondrial DNA that you have exists in the Sami people of Scandinavia, and they were always regarded as a magical people. And it's entirely possible that amongst the Vikings who came here, there were Sami people as well. Really? (CHUCKLES) So perhaps your ancestress was actually a Sami, but she came over here and established a family in Shetland. Right. Probably 1200 years ago. OK. That's a nice context. Wow. That's amazing. I didn't know that we had a connection to the Sami people, so, you know, kind of hearing about that and walking on this land, it's just kind of given me a real sense of place, actually. Coming up ` Erik learns of his family's violent past. What a nasty piece of work. They were hard times. And Anika meets a cousin with a very dark family story. We have a witch in the family called Susannah Martin. (GASPS) Cool. 1 Musician Anika Moa's DNA adventure has revealed her great-great-great-grandfather was William Fowler, an American sailor, who jumped ship in New Zealand. So, he was on the President II,... MARK: Mm-hm. ...and it was the year 1849. Mm-hm. Anika's also learnt that she has 1% Native American DNA. 19, with a dark complexion and dark hair. Wowsers. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) And Anika is now in Mayville, Wisconsin, to meet her DNA cousin Jack, who also has Fowlers in his family tree. This is my first time in Mayville ` this beautiful, petite little town. I'm looking forward to seeing Jack, who I meet today, and what I learn about my... my background, which is so weird. Everyone here kinda talks like, (AMERICAN ACCENT) 'Hi. How are you? What would you like today? 'Do you want a coffee?' And I'm like, 'Oh my God,' cos I've been doing accents like that all my life, and now I know why. Hi. Hi! I'm Anika. Hi, Anika. I'm Jack. Nice to meet you. Mwah. Yay. Good to see you. Good to see you too. It's nice to be here in Mayville. (CHUCKLES) OK, yeah. I don't know why` Well, I kinda know why I'm here ` because my great-great-great-grandfather was William Fowler, but that's all I know. OK. What would we be ` related? We would probably be... seventh or eighth cousins by now. And do you feel excited knowing that you've got a cousin in New Zealand? Very cool. (CHUCKLES) Very cool. Yeah. Cool, eh? It's very cool. (LAUGHS) He's my cuzzie. (GIGGLES) So the Fowler comes through your mother's side. My mother's side, yeah. So it is English, eh? It's very much from England. Very much from England, certainly that. So, my mum's English, and I knew that all my family's from England, but I never would have guessed I would find my American-English family via my dad, because of, you know` Oh, OK, yeah. ...because of our genealogy and our history, so it's really interesting. So, what can you tell me about the Fowler family? Let's go back in time. OK. We have a witch in the family called Susannah Martin,... (GASPS) ...and she was actually... tried twice. Once in... oh, I guess 1670s and then later on in 1692, but the one in 1692 got her. Wow. I mean, that's what got her. By that time, her husband had passed away, and she had no family of her own, so she was, you know, pouring dust into` Oh, that's witch material already, isn't it? Right there. She killed him, probably. (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) Actually, he stood by her all the time in the first one, but, yes, again, she was accused of being a witch by several different people, and a lot of children, which is` SOFTLY: Wow. They took testimony, a lot of` From children? Children telling her that they kinda` she'd kinda curse them and make them do strange things. What, like clean their room? (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) 'Clean your room, or else.' And supposedly did that, and eventually, all the accusations and depositions caught up to her, and then they hung her and a couple others on the same day, and they buried them in shallow ground` in rocky ground because that's what you do with witches, you don't bury them deep into the soil, because... Because they're not godlike. Not godlike, and you wanted them... So supposedly, some people think they know where she` but no one knows for sure where they were buried, so... That would be so... Imagine if you found it. Oh, that'd be interesting. It would be amazing. Yeah, very much so. Wow. That's interesting. I know. Why`? Yeah. Are there any more interesting stories about witches and... (EXHALES DEEPLY) Any vampires? (LAUGHS) No vampires. Not that I'm aware of. Imagine that. No vampires. Just a couple vampires in our family. It's all good. It was lovely to meet Jack. It felt really surreal, and it felt right and natural, and I felt like I was on the right path. But mostly, what I found fascinating was the tale of the witch, of the witch in the family, and all what happened and, you know, around that time with, you know, hanging them and putting them in prison, and, you know, all you have to do is go 'Boo!' and they say you're a witch. What?! It's crazy. The town where Susannah Martin was hanged for witchcraft is Salem, in Massachusetts, and Anika's in town to pay her respects. When you hear the word 'Salem', you think of witches. Now we're here, in the place where a relative of mine was actually part of the witch hunt. It just shows the minds of people back then. But it's very similar to the minds of people now ` the fact that you can be victimised for being you. I am sitting on one of the 20 seats. This is a Salem memorial for the 20... 'witches' that were either incarcerated or hanged, and my relative Susannah Martin was one of them. She's one of these stones. I'm very superstitious, actually. I used to not wear shoes onstage, because I was superstitious that if I did, I'd have a bad show. Wear a certain pair of underwear when I'm onstage. You know, and I believe in things like when you leave a graveyard, you have to wash your hands with water to` so the spirits don't follow you home. But in a sense, I'm not that superstitious, because I don't really believe in ghosts. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Oh. Hello, Anika. That's the end to the dark side of the family tree. Now, are you ready to walk into the light ` on a beach, that is? Where're we going? Where're we going? Your third cousin Tena is waiting to meet you in... (SINGS) Hawaii. (GASPS, LAUGHS) Hawaii. Actor Erik Thomson is in his mother's ancestral homeland, the Shetland Islands. So, all the heritage and culture and the landscape here belongs to you. My land. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) He's now at the old Sinclair family croft, land that his mother's family have worked for many centuries. Local historian Tony Gott has got some family tales to share. The first evidence I have of a Sinclair living here was Jerome Sinclair. Jerome, OK. Jerome Sinclair... was here in the 1841 census. Oh, OK. But he was quite aged, and he was in his 80s. So it's likely that the Sinclairs were here quite a few generations before that. I can only find the Sinclairs here from the late 1790s. Well, that'll do. 1790's pretty good. (CHUCKLES) So, tell me all about this land that I own. (LAUGHS) Well, this land you` your family used to own,... Used to own, yes, thank you. ...is the area that you can see around here. Jerome Sinclair, I believe, was the first person to actually live and own the land here. Right. We know his father is John Sinclair from Jerome's marriage record. And John is my great-great-great-great-great- grandfather ` five generations. Yes. Yeah, right. The Sinclairs were very protective of their own land and what they owned and would defend it. Both Jerome Sinclair and his son Magnus Sinclair were almost classed as being violent people. Magnus Sinclair decided that he'd had enough of his neighbour. What he did is he decided that he was going to burn their house down. (CHUCKLES) And he did this? And he did this. He did this. Although he said he did not set fire to it personally, he instructed one of his beach lads to do it for him. What a nasty piece of work. Whether you feel there are any traits in yourself from that... Well, I'm not a violent bloke, but it's interesting you say that. I've got a photograph of my great- great-great-grandfather Magnus, and now that you say that he might have had a history of violence, you know, looking at his eyes, I can kinda see` I can maybe see that little twist in there. Of all the times I came up to Shetland, no one ever brought me here. Maybe there's, like, a sense of denying our ancestry or something, I dunno. Maybe there's some, you know, finding out that my great-great- great-grandfather was an arsonist ` (LAUGHS) you know, burnt someone's house down ` maybe my family, these days, are denying our history. So, I've taken this little piece of rock out of the house here, and I'm gonna take it back to Australia. My daughter's currently doing a model house ` a model croft house ` so I'll be able to give this to her and say this has come from our ancestral croft house up in the Shetland Islands. And my little boy, Magnus, you know, he's named after` it's a family name. And neither of them have been back to Shetland or to Scotland, but I'm definitely gonna bring them up here next year. We'll bring a picnic up here, and I just wanna see them running around this land, and, you know, I think they'll fit in quite nicely. (CHUCKLES) Maybe we can stay here. Bit draughty, though, I think. (CHUCKLES) Coming up ` Erik plays the night away. Sitting amongst this, you know, fiddle music is just, like, so good. And Anika meets a kindred spirit. ANIKA: We're so relatives! (LAUGHS) Yes, we are, cos I like to bounce too! (BOTH LAUGH) 1 Erik Thomson is in the Shetland Islands. At his ancestral croft, he learnt of a firebug in the family tree. You know, finding out that my great-great-great-grandfather was an arsonist. (LAUGHS) (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) He's now in downtown Lerwick, capital of the Shetlands. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Hey, Richard. Evening, Erik. It's time for a knees-up. You're about to meet Marie-Alain, your fifth cousin. She's a dab hand on the fiddle, and I want you to taste a slice of modern Shetland life. (GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC) So, you've never had any desire to leave Shetland? Yeah, I have, but no... not for the rest of my life, I suppose. Right, so you're always gonna be here, you think? Yeah, you're always` I feel like you're always drawn back to Shetland. Like, you're always drawn back home here. And what is it about the place that makes you wanna, you know, stay here? Is it just because you were born here, or is it the culture, or what is it? I think it's a lot of things, and I think I'm really lucky, the generation I'm born in, because in recent years, Shetland has grown and expanded so much, and there's a lot more on offer for young people. Right. So you do have the culture. Like, there's a really vibrant music scene now in Shetland. Cos there was a period there where a lot of the youngsters would just leave, wouldn't they? Yeah, but after they opened the oil terminal, there became this huge influx of money and opportunities for jobs in Shetland. Yeah, there was a reason to stay. Yeah. (GROUP PLAYS FIDDLE MUSIC) I said it to Marie-Alain, I said, 'Here is the water and the land, 'and then you get the music and the stories on top of that, and it completes the picture.' And I think all cultures' music does that, whether it's Maori or Norwegian or Shetland. It kind of just... just kinda gets you, and it kinda makes everything right. Yeah, it's very inspiring. That was incredible. Incredible. (CELL PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Hey, Richard. Well, Erik, you held your own with the fiddlers, but it would be wrong to come all this way and not stop off at grandma's old house now, wouldn't it? (FIDDLE MUSIC) This is my family land. It's kind of a long way from nowhere, but... my mother was born in that house, so it's got a lot of... a lot of deep significance to my family here. There's a photograph of my grandfather and all of his brothers and sisters sitting on the doorstep. I think it would have been an idyllic kind of lifestyle here. But maybe I'm romanticising it. (PLEASANT MUSIC) I actually don't know where I belong these days. I mean, when I left Scotland back in '74, I was too young to even sort of understand what was happening, and then I came back to the Shetland Islands, and I went to school here in '79, at the age of 12, and I was looking forward to coming back, because I used to get called 'Haggis' and 'Jock' back at school in New Zealand, in Tauranga, and I thought when I'd come back here, I'd be accepted as a son, you know? Like a Shetland son or a Scottish son, you know. And I got back here, and they called me 'Maori'. It's great skimming-stone territory. Oh, that was a bit` (CHUCKLES) that was a bit shit. I feel very much at home here when I'm here. Oh, that's a good one. 'I kind of feel like I've got a right to be here, you know, and, yeah, it's good.' It's really good. (CHUCKLES) ANIKA: This is the one. MARK: That's the one. Yeah. It's amazing. Musician Anika Moa has uncovered her father's American family, and it's taken her through whaling history and even the Salem witch trials. But now she's in Hawaii to meet her third cousin Tena, who's also connected through her dad's line. (AEROPLANE ENGINES ROAR) I'm about to meet a fifth or sixth cousin called Tena, and I'm excited to meet her. In Maori kind of culture, she would pretty much be my close auntie, so she's welcoming me into her house, and hopefully she's got heaps of food, cos I'm hungry, and, yeah, looking forward to hearing some stories and seeing some pictures and stuff. Hey, here we go. I'm here! Hi! I'm Anika. Are you Tena? I am. Aloha. Aloha. (LAUGHS) Oh my goodness. Hi! You're beautiful. So are you. We're so relatives. (LAUGHS) Yes, we are, cos I like to bounce too! (BOTH LAUGH) Oh my God. Thanks for having us. I am so excited. Look, we're being blessed. This in Hawaii is not rain, it's blessings. Yeah, my hair's gonna get wet. Let's go inside. Let's go. OK. (LAUGHS) Oh my goodness. It's really thrilling to meet a fifth cousin and to find out you've got so much in common, and you just feel connected to them straight away. # Tatou tatou e. # So, you're Tena, and what's your full name? Tenita, which is very similar to yours. To Anika ` Tenita and Anika, yeah. Yeah. From New Zealand, when you think of Hawaii, you think of Samoan or Hawaiians that are really, really brown. And that's what I thought you'd be, and you'd, like, (JAMAICAN ACCENT) kind of have an accent like this. (LAUGHS) You'd be at the beach, and we'd meet at the` We talk in pidgin, bruddah. (LAUGHS) Yeah! Yeah, yeah. But you're you. You're beautiful. You've got the same hair as me, but better. (BOTH LAUGH) And what do you do? Who are you? I came here about a year ago, because I'm a hair stylist for the film industry,... Yeah. ...and Hawaii Five-O brought me in to live in paradise. And I said, 'Aight.' So tell me a little bit about your TV show, cos I love famous people. OK. I'm really famous for loving famous people. (EXHALES) Oh gosh. I've worked with Miley Cyrus,... OMG. ...Robert Redford,... OMG. ...Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt. Wait, wait. Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt. What's he like? So you've done his hair? (GASPS) He's darling, yeah. First time was on 'A River Runs Through It'. Just a good old boy. Just very sweet. You're, like, really famous in the hair world, dude. I am... very blessed. I've had a great career. Yes. Tell me about your beautiful tats, because they look tribal. Thank you. Would they be considered tribal? They are. They are definitely. When I was 18, I just started it because I thought I was cool, but then I started getting into my Maori culture, and so it's up here, lots about my mum and dad. Can you see this? It's an eagle. So there's the face and the beak. Mm. Mm-hm. And there's his, or her, wings. Wow. And then that's` All these koru here are` represent each of my siblings. I've got seven siblings. Yeah. So if I come to New Zealand, can we go get tats together? (CACKLES) Can we find where I tie into the family... Yeah! ...and get something meaningful? Absolutely. Yeah, you absolutely can. And you'll look` You kind of look Maori too, so you'll definitely be welcomed with open arms. (LAUGHS) That's so exciting. Yeah, yeah. Aw. (GIGGLES) (ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC) AMERICAN ACCENT: Hi, there. I'm Anika Moa, and I'm on the set of Hawaii Five-0. MAN: Go and roll! WOMAN: We're rolling. Rolling! Sometimes, when you go on set, it's a little bit awkward, and people kind of are a little bit` I don't know, a little bit rude to you, but when Tena invited me on to the set, she was like, (AMERICAN ACCENT) 'This is my cousin Anika,' and everyone knew me. Everyone listened to my music, and they were like, (AMERICAN ACCENT) 'You're so amazing.' Like, 'Yeah, I know.' (CHUCKLES) And Tena's energy is very similar to mine. She's very outgoing, bubbly, but you can see that she's serious and sensitive and hard-working, and I think we really clicked, and I think that her and I will be in contact. She's actually already invited me to do a gig at a local place, so I might do that. I might come back and sing here. (UPBEAT HAWAIIAN MUSIC) I really believe you only live once, and to do this journey is so genuinely thrilling. Yeah, it was really nice. It was really nice to actually have this moment, cos I actually just... thought that it would be all, like, facts and figures and where they were born and how they were born, and then you meet someone so cool. Find out you've got so much in common, and you just feel connected to them straight away. When you put an idea in someone's head and then you start searching, then you start believing. And, you know, a man with the name William Fowler, he's just one of many relatives that I have not met. This is my mom. Yeah. And that's my grandma. This is Tena's dad. So it's time for me to get out there and search for more family. It'll be good. It'll be fun. Our DNA contains tiny hints that tell us how our forebears travelled. It shows us where to look to uncover traces of their lives and the stories we find to help bring them back to life. Whoo-hoo-hoo! It's been a great pleasure helping reconnect New Zealanders with their forgotten heritage. I'm Richard O'Brien. Thank you so much for watching, and goodnight. Copyright Able 2017