Well, *Everybody* knows that the people found on Easter Island originated from the Eurasian side of the Arctic Circle, and were pushed down into what is now known as Iran/Persia during the last major Ice Age.
Then, due to the pressures of other peoples fleeing the same catastrophes and changes, took to boats and began their own version of the Long March, but by sea... mostly.
They mixed languages and bloodlines along the way, and had splinter groups going all over the place, including the eastern coastal areas of eastern coasts of Africa, the Central American neck, the US, and north Pacific. But, the main group wandered down to New Zealand and the south Pacific AO.
[cues up “We Are Family”]
Heyerdahl showed the affinities between certain South American sculpture and the Easter Island statues (including those early, less stylized ones that he was first to rediscover and excavate), and did so years after his balsa raft expedition across the Pacific.