I am studying independently on the Bronze Age collapse mostly through youtube videos like the series made by the Extra Credits youtube channel and I wonder if the so-called "Sea People" that the Egyptians blame the Bronze Age Collapse of around 1200 B.C.E. on could have been done by some group of world voyaging Polynesians or if this is impossible. I've looked around the internet and not found anyone talking about this but the early Polynesian expansions yo the Philipines started around 3000 B.C.E. from what I understand. I am not a historian by any means so I could be completely wrong or misunderstanding this. I've heard that sweet potatoes in polynesian cultures seem to be proof of contact between them and South America, and I remember hearing that someone traveled across the ocean in some sort of polynesian style craft. Again I don't know if I'm misremembering this so I don't really have sources but I'll edit if I find them after this post. Since these people fared across the entire Pacific to places like Easter Island and Hawaii, I'm wondering if they could have gone the other way (maybe stopping throughout the Indian subcontinent or early China along the way?) And hit North Africa and been the illusive Sea People?
Nope. There is no cultural group identifiable as ‘Polynesian’ until closer to the year 0 and the acquisition of the sweet potato is probably closer to the year 1000 CE.
1200 BCE coincides more with the Lapita culture as far as Pacific voyagers go, and while they were incredible voyagers, they were no where near Egypt.
There were Austronesian cousins of the Lapita people in island Southeast Asia who did ride the winds to cut across the Indian Ocean and eventually settle Madagascar, but that happens a bit later as well, and again, not really anywhere near Egypt.