While several answers have thus been proposed to the question of "where from," except for the estimate that the Yami came from the Philippines around 1,000 years ago, the answer to "when" the aborigines arrived is still quite unclear.
台灣先住民源自何方，數來似乎脈絡歷歷；只不過，除了蘭嶼雅美人據人類學家估計，約在一千年前由菲律賓一帶北上外，其他各族遷徙來台的時間仍很模糊。