O Le Aiga Sāmoa bilingual comic book

The O Le Aiga Sāmoa book will consist of approximately 90 full-colour pages collecting the first series of 7 monthly O Le Aiga Sāmoa online comics. The comic stories will be printed as a bilingual flip book with the Sāmoan language version on one side and the English version on the flipside.

Read the O Le Aiga Sāmoa comics on Instagram or on the Bloody Samoan website.

Nafanuatele Lafitaga Mafaufau, the creator and writer of O Le Aiga Samoa comic, is the passionate founder and teacher of the Nafanua Communication and Culture Samoan language classes. Established in 2019 for the local Auckland community, have now extended to online classes for Wellington, NZ regions, Australia and America. It was through these classes that she and her student, Michel initiated the collaboration of this comic series.

The vision is for young people, especially Samoans to engage and be empowered in the Samoan language and culture. The stories focus on Samoan values of fa'aaloalo (respect), usita'i (obedience/ discipline), tausi matua (elderly care), tautua (service), soifua mālōlōina (health and wellbeing), Lotu a Tamaiti (White Sunday) and pule (leadership).

As of the start of this campaign, 5 of the 7 comics have been completed with the last 2 scheduled to be completed mid-November.

Our crowd: 

• Anyone who is keen or interested in the Samoan language, especially people who are on their own language learning journey.
• Samoan community.
• Other people who may be interested could be teachers, schools (bilingual units/ a'oga amata), libraries, churches, parents with children.

Key messages:

• This comic helps to make the Samoan language accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.
• It is an engaging medium for Samoan young people to read stories that are relatable for them and other Pacific people.
• It is a cool way encourage reading in Samoan between parents and children for language and cultural learning.

The Team:

Nafanuatele Lafitaga Mafaufau draws from her 20 plus years of secondary school teaching experience of Samoan language. She has undertaken a range of roles specifically for Samoan as an NCEA subject. These range from National Moderator, Examiner, Exam marker, Professional development facilitator as well as delivering cultural competency workshops, translator and resource developer. Her knowledge of language and culture also landed her a debut acting role as the mother in the movie, "Hibiscus and Ruthless." 

Michel Mulipola is an award winning Sāmoan comic book artist who has illustrated works for the WWE, Marvel Comics, 2K Games Australia & New Zealand, NZ School Journals, and more. As well as an illustrator, Michel is also a professional wrestler and former NZ Heavyweight and Tag Team Champion. He is a huge advocate for reading proudly representing Duffy Books in Homes as a Role Model and a member of the Read NZ Writers in Schools programme.

This is an ALL OR NOTHING campaign so if we do not reach our target goal, we do not get any of the donations. Every dollar, share, retweet and ounce of support is much appreciated. All funds raised will go directly to covering book printing and associated campaign fees.