I cannot speak on behalf of everyones accounts on these islands. But respectfully sharing mine, my family, the colleagues I work with at Longs, and the customers I have interacted with who have all kindly shared their experiences through this pandemic. Major mahalos to all of those who allowed me to take their pictures with their masks on.

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The Coronavirus pandemic has been one of the most difficult events in recent history on a global scale. There are few to zero corners of the world that didn’t feel the brunt and effects of Covid 19. In my travels, I have stayed connected with many people around the world. From New Zealand to Greece, and all sharing very similar accounts of lockdown, social distancing, and being stripped of any semblance of a normal life.

Pandemic Hits Hawaii

Here in Hawaii, everyday life had been severely impacted, as these islands (sadly) mostly rely on tourism for dollar dollar bills y’all. But even for an everyday person here, the panic, fear, and anxiety of catching Covid and jeopordizing our kupuna (elders) was hard enough for most of us. After all, most of us do live in crowded households. While I can’t share accounts for everyone across these islands, I can say that working at one of the busiest Longs Drugs in the island chain has allowed me to have major perspective on everything that has happened to Hawai’i during COVID. As an essential worker in retail, I have seen all kinds of patterns and habits, to how people shop, what people shop for, communicate and the widen spectrum of how people are coping. I’ve seen people yell at each other to get in damn near fist fights, while most other people try to keep the aloha and show and share gratitude. With that being said, that is why I wanted for so long to write this. Because through it all, the aloha still continued to remain strong in the people and the community. After all, it does reflect the tradition and energy of these islands, wheter you’re in town (Honolulu proper) or on the Big Island.

In Mid March, the coronavirus outbreak had already been designated a PANDEMIC, with many cities and nations around the world shutting down. In Hawai’i, our outbreak had just begun to spread with cases crossing over 50 to 100 real fast. By this time, the community would flock to Longs Drugs to find shelves of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, Vitamin C, zinc lozenges, and thermometers wiped out, including most famously, FACE MASKS. And that is exactly what the highlight of this post is all about. Weeks went by where our shipments of 3m and CVS brand N95 and earloop masks were low until they simply stopped coming. People would come in and ask, to phone in and ask, until noone even bothered inquiring, at all. But there came a point where everyone had enough of it’s reliance on big corporations and came together with aloha as a beautiful community.

“In a time of hardship, these prints really brought out positivity and color to our daily lives.”

Tropical Paper Garden Aloha Print Facemask Selection from Anthony G. Perez on Vimeo.

On the first week of April, local company Tropical Paper Garden, had mass produced and distributed our first batch of beautiful Aloha print masks, with designs of honu, ancient Hawaiian symbols, and warm colors that represent the most important aspects of Hawai’i. It was not long after despite fabric shops being closed, that business owners set up spaces in their homes and started making their own mass productions of aloha print masks.

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Companies like Kauhale Living that specializes in making Hawaiian print shopping bags, shower curtains, and kitchen rags used whatever fabric and designs they had to make masks also. Interestingly a bag we had on the shelf matched a mask I bought for my girlfriend ;).

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Even better, was aloha shirt companies like Kahala & other known Hawaiian print companies followed suit keeping businesses afloat all while keeping people safe by using their excess material and prints to manufacture masks also.

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Homeade Aloha Print Facemasks from Anthony G. Perez on Vimeo.

It was the most amazing transition I had ever seen. One week we are all scrounging for masks and taking what we can get to another week where we are spoiled and being choosy about what Hawaiian designs appeal to us most. Having endless hoards of all these beautiful design prints made from a number of different local companies. The best thing you can do regardless if you’re a resident or visitor, is support local business. Once mass production became prominent on these islands, everyone had their hands on an aloha print mask whether it was from a local company or someones home. This is what caused me to fall in love with some of the beautiful prints I’ve seen people wear, from honu to lehua designs. I mean hell, even Avengers and Winnie the Pooh designs looked incredible and were created with a lot of expertise.

Homemade Facemask with filter – Winnie The Pooh from Anthony G. Perez on Vimeo.

As much as I wanted to get permission to photograph everyone with their masks, I one, am not a photographer, and two had to respect the integrity and professionalism of my job. Which is why I asked for the help of my fellow colleagues to capture some of these beautifully well crafted Hawaiian facemasks. Here we go:

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And of course, cant forget my girlfriend and her son..

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and lastly…me with my third (current) Hawaiian print mask

While most of the world had managed to find a way to “supply your own”, I will have to say that it was an absolute blessing to live amongst this strong collection of mana and aloha to get us all through this in the best way we could. These local prints did so much for these islands and the community, giving all of us a sense of security and ease of mind. In a time of hardship, these prints really brought out positivity and color to our daily lives. And I surely saw that ease of mind through the community at Longs. How people spoke to each other again, how they shopped, and how they showed more appreciation for us essential workers more and more! I can’t say it hasn’t been a stressful time as it has been, but working retail in Hawai’i opposite of the mainland, is a true blessing.

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Special mahalos to everyone who helped me put this together and even bigger thanks to my dear colleague Michele who helped gather some footage of her family making masks in their shop.