visit us at www.talesfromnanumea.com or

Don't have a credit card? Contact us at [email protected] for help.

OR pay us via Paypal & we'll manually put your funds through for you. Paypal account is: [email protected]

The Project - About Tales from Nanumea

The Tales from Nanumea series is an animation project to help save and preserve the culture, stories, and oral traditions of Tuvalu - a nation at risk of losing their land due to global warming and rising ocean levels. 

Background – Who’s Behind The Series?

My name is George Samuels, also known as "Siosi." I am the son of a Tuvaluan/Samoan mother and Fijian/Indian father. I created the first episode of the series, “Pai & Vau,” at university in 2007. This was a result of all the stories my mother told me growing up. For some reason, I became very drawn to them and things would always fall into place whenever I chose to use them in my assignments.

Due to this "inner calling," I then went on to create a second and third episode in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

As a result of my efforts with the first three episodes, collected interest over the years, and quitting my job for what I strongly feel is a "higher calling," I am now looking at creating a full series (of approximately 6-10 episodes). 

This Pozible campaign is for Episode 4 of the series.

Aim & Outcomes – Why You Should Care

“We live in constant fear of the adverse impacts of climate change. For a coral atoll nation, sea level rise and more severe weather events loom as a growing threat to our entire population. The threat is real and serious, and is of no difference to a slow and insidious form of terrorism against us.” ~Saufatu Sopoanga, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, at the 58^th Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly New York, 24^th September, 2003

This project's aim is to help:

· Preserve Tuvaluan culture, stories and oral traditions

· Raise awareness of global warming

· Bridge generational gaps through animation

· Inspire discussions and conversation

· Appeal to young people

Just to see how relevant this is, here's a recent comment by a fan (coezma22827) from Youtube:

"Yes! You should definitely make more animated videos of myths and legends of our ancestors even better how bout a movie??!! You know,I was very fortunate to have my grandfather tell me this story of pai and vau and because of the language barrier is quite hard for me to understand. My kids enjoyed it and was able to share in their class. Use your talent to get the stories of our ancestors told...awesome stuff."

This is what I'm talking about, and it's so great to see that it's being communicated as such!

The fact that animation is intentionally being used to help preserve an endangered culture is what adds to the uniqueness of this project. 

If successful, this project will be the first crowd-funded animation for the Polynesian region.

The Team

My crew currently consists of a Producer, Emeretta Cross, and Illustrator/Animator, Kanlaya Padungsin. 

However, we are open to help and volunteers! 

Please contact us at [email protected], or hit us up on our Facebook page, if you are interested.

Fans & Followers - Need Your Help!

Tuvalu is a small nation, virtually invisible on a normal map but, with your help, we can help make its current plight and existence known across the globe. Each person, each group, and each society, has a story to share. The difference for Tuvalu, though, is that our spiritually rich stories can be one of our greatest strengths in an increasingly globalized society.

Various groups have expressed an interest in helping out, but we all know that cash flow can either make or break a project. I want to turn these ideas into reality but at the same time, work together with people of diverse backgrounds, faiths and cultures for a worthy cause. 

I've created the first three episodes on my own, and now want to have you be a part of the next (fourth) episode!

I will be posting updates plus a production diary on the talesfromnanumea.com site for everyone to see. This will be linked with our Facebook and Twitter accounts so we are visible on all channels. Hopefully we can get discussions going on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

I also hope to get you all involved by being a part of the production process. How? Well, back in 2009, I posted Work-In-Progress images and animatics through Facebook - this turned out to be a huge success! Therefore, I'm going to replicate this for this next project, allowing you all to give your feedback on the work that we do! 

Where's The $$$ Going?

Apart from the rewards you'll receive, know that this initiative is being built for the long-term. The animation created here will help keep our culture alive in the face of looming decimation. It will go into paying our volunteers something (as opposed to nothing); production costs such as voice-overs, sound editing, and music; and, of course, the rewards for this Pozible campaign.

If we exceed our funding goal, we'll also have a chance to put more money into creating a better quality product, and/or creating the next episode(s), so that'd be awesome! 

I promise to share the ups and downs with you, and to remain as honest and transparent as possible throughout the duration of the project – so that includes financial transparency as well, just so you can see where money is being spent!

Fafetai (Thank You)!

By supporting this cause, you're helping to save Tuvalu (believe it or not). You become a part of its story just by being involved in this - so thank you in advance!

Here are some of our official supporters - double thank you!!