Polynesia is the group of Pacific islands that from high above looks like a handful of little seashells tossed across shoreline sand. Those guys down there don't get a lot of attention in world music, something Opetaia Foa'i, the man behind the Polynesian six-member music and dance troupe Te Vaka, means to change. His father is from Tukelau, his mother from Tuvalu, he was born in Samoa and raised in New Zealand. He's a Pacific island kinda guy.

Te Vaka -- "the canoe" -- is a fusion of original Polynesian rooted music with traditional instrumentation, dance and costuming. There's no point in asking Foa'i about where he got his musical start because " ... everyone in the Islands is musical. They have no idea why anybody else would make a fuss about me being good at what I'm doing because to them it's just normal. Dance is just used for celebrating things. In their eyes everyone can sing, everyone can dance."

Meanwhile, as the rest of the world discusses the extent and cause of climate change, Foa'i and his fellow citizens are observing close up the effects of rising sea levels. It's not like they can start piling up sandbags.

"I've seen it for myself," says Foa'i. "The sea has claimed a lot of the land. On my mother's island of Tuvalu, the sea is coming up through the ground. At the airport, the sea is covering the landing strip and plans have already been made for evacuation. What gets me is the beautiful cultures on these islands could be lost. They are unique."