My name is Celina, I live in Tacoma, Washington. I am Hafekasi Tongan. Which from Tongan to English translate as half-caste. My mother is a Tongan woman from Vava’u, Tonga. My father was an indigenous-Hispanic man, from Pueblo, Colorado. I am a multi-racial person but identify most my Pasifika heritage.
Initially, I created my business to provide an economic opportunity for my mother who is getting older in age. I wanted my business to uplift the Pacific Islander community and highlight our creative abilities (handicrafts), I wanted this because the world I exist in has a deep displacement of representation for Pasifika people. Importing handicrafts from the Pacific during Covid proved to be a challenge, so I had to pivot with what direction I wanted my business to go in.
I’ve always been a naturally creative person with a fairly good eye for aesthetic, because of my experience as a high school yearbook editor I also had the tiniest bit of graphic design experience, so with those skills I ambitiously decided I would try my hand at creating a few shirts.
I don’t consider myself the trendiest person, but I love streetwear, particularly what I love about streetwear is that it is an expression of the wearer's identity. With that in mind, I wanted the clothing I was wearing to tell my story, my perspective as a Pasifika person in the diaspora, I had a vision of creating wearable art that empowered, educated, created identity, and helped to evolve other’s perspective of what and who Pasifika is. Pacific Islander’s are natural storytellers, we use oral traditions to share our culture to the next generations, and clothing became my outlet to share similar stories to young pacific people.
I made my first couple of shirts and put them on Etsy and got to work spreading the word on Instagram. Because of the amount of interest I received with my shirts I started designing them in abundance and I really haven’t stopped. It’s been a beautiful experience to design culturally relevant shirts for my community, a lot of my designs have a reoccurring theme of activism and civic engagement. My aunt [Margarita Satini] who died from Covid-19 complications was a champion for the Pacific Islander community, she showed out fearlessly for our community and I wanted to pay homage to her activism with my brand.
As a person I feel a huge commitment to uplift my community, for that reason I’d like my brand to share the same commitment. My plans include learning the ins and out of owning a creative business so that I can identify what potential opportunities there are to help my people thrive.
