Hoʻolauna

Aloha mai! Mahalo for visiting Pailolo Designs, a Kanaka-owned and wahine-owned pāʻoihana (business), based in Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi.  

ʻO au ʻo Aulani Herrod-Perkins and I am the owner of Pailolo Designs. This pāʻoihana is something I envisioned a few years ago, and it has been a journey of bringing those ideas to life while navigating where life has taken me.

With a background in teaching and conservation, I noticed the lack of Hawaiian education materials and ʻōiwi-based products that we use in our everyday lives. Pailolo Designs was created to contribute to the normalization of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), nohona Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian lifestyle), and mea Hawaiʻi (all things Hawaiʻi) through art, crafts, accessories, and everyday items.

Pailolo Designs is also deeply connected to my husband, Keoni Eliab-Perkins. He was not only my partner in life, but also a collaborator, designer, artist, and someone who shared in many of the dreams and ideas behind this pāʻoihana. Keoni passed away in May 2025, and since then, I have been learning how to navigate both my personal life and this business without him.

As I continue this journey, I want Pailolo Designs to be a way to honor him—to share his artwork, carry forward the ideas and plans we dreamed about together, and bring some of the things we talked about into reality. It is my way of keeping his creativity, aloha, and connection to Hawaiʻi present while also figuring out what this next chapter looks like for me.

If you are not familiar with the term Pailolo, it is the name of the channel between Maui and Molokaʻi. I chose this inoa because it represented the connection between myself and my ipo, a Maui boy, who became my husband and a Pailolo Designs collaborator and designer. To hoʻopaʻa our connection to one another, we even got married in these very waters.

But Pailolo carries an even deeper meaning for me and for our ʻohana.

Pailolo is the name of my tūtū kuakahi (great-grandmother), Mary Pailolo Kahihikolo, who is a kupa o Pelekunu, Molokaʻi. The name of this pāʻoihana was also chosen to honor my late makuakāne, who is the reason why Pailolo—the name and the business—plays such a significant role in my life.

Long before Pailolo Designs became a business, my dad and I (and eventually Keoni) had also agreed that Pailolo would be the name of my first child. When I became hāpai, we gave our baby the name Pailolo. Although I did not get to carry Pē to full term, Pailolo was a life that Keoni and I created together and a part of our ʻohana that will always be ours.

So when I chose Pailolo as the name for this pāʻoihana, it was never simply a business name. It carries the people, places, love, and dreams that have shaped my life. It carries my tūtū kuakahi. It carries my makuakāne. It carries the connection between Molokaʻi and Maui. It carries my marriage to Keoni, the child we created together, and the life we imagined building.

Today, as I continue Pailolo Designs without Keoni, I am trying to find my way through both my personal life and this business. Some days that means creating something new. Other days it simply means holding onto what we had already dreamed about.

For me, continuing Pailolo Designs is one way of honoring him and all that we shared—to share his artwork, bring our plans and ideas to life, and keep a piece of what we created together moving forward.

Nou kēia e Pāpā.
Nou kēia e Keoni.
Nou kēia e Pailolo.

And with love to all of the ʻohana, kūpuna, and places that gave this name its meaning.

Mahalo for being here and for supporting this little piece of my heart, my ʻohana, and the dreams we are still bringing to life.