Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 3, 1 March 2001 — OHA loan offers Waiʻanae man new design for success in pareau business [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA loan offers Waiʻanae man new design for success in pareau business

By Caitriona Kearns Bozo Pualoa starts his workday at 6 a.m. and by 4 p.m. he is free to stroll down the beach just a block from his house. Hōkū, his energetic German Shepherd pup comes along with him. Pualoa is a skilled crafter in dying and printing fabrics for the production of Tahitian style pareaus of whieh he makes and sells for wholesale distribution locally to Nohea Gallery, Bishop Museum's shop Pacifica and many other galleries. In Japan, two hula supply companies offer his wares. Top quality pieces are sold wholesale while the lesser grade pareaus are sold at craft fairs and flea markets. Pualoa imports dyes from Marsais, France, that react to the infra red light spectrum whereby a pattern is imprinted on fabric as the light makes negative and positive areas like a photographic process.

The patterns Pualoa prints are simple stenciled cutouts of kapa border patterns with floral and leaf motifs of ferns and palms. The fabric is placed between two wire grids, whieh leaves a watermarked, textured pattern similar to the one used on kapa. Ironing is the final step that sets the dye. When Pualoa first left Hawai'i in 1969, he got a job in construction in Alaska making $1,000 a week. Since then he has run his own businesses. Pualoa was also a kayak instructor in Alaska, running his own shop. In 1989, Pualoa eame back to Hawai'i to farm on a homestead granted to him on Hawai'i and discovered to his surprise there would be a seven-year delay for infrastructure development. Instead of farming. Pualoa started selling pareaus that were supplied by three different Tahitian printers. Then in 1993, Pualoa received a business loan from OHA's Native Hawaiian

Revolving Loan Fund to help him transition into manufacturing his own pareaus. The loan was $50,000 and is now close to its final payment after having been extended from flve to seven years. "Business is up and down," said Pualoa. Since June, Pualoa has had inconsistent quality work from his fabric cutters whom he contracts for

batch cutting fabric. Now Pualoa has a new contractor and pays more for quality cuts. "Now I pay 50 cents a cut to have it cut the way I want it," Pualoa said. "This last order I got we cut and washed about 40 pieces and I got 35 perfect ones. I have my fingers crossed that it continues to be so good." Pualoa measures success in his ability to pay his mortgage and provide for his wife's post-graduate studies at U.H. Mānoa. In the beginning they both worked side by side. Now she surges the edges of his fabrics. "This business is the net that allows me to feed my family. When the fishing is bad you either flsh harder and get less fish or you quit," Pualoa said. "We just continue." Good advice from a successful OHA loan recipient. For more information about OHA's loan fund, eall 594-1924. For Pualoa Company eall 696-8736. ■

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William "Bozo" Pualoa lays out his stencils for printing. Fhola Caitnona Kearns