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Aloha! Starting in the fall of 2023, we are adding a new collection of lovingly hand curated items. Kanaka Vintage will showcase lost and found items that reflect the cultural diversity that is modern Hawai'i. Our name is derived from the word "Kanaka" which means "person" in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and comes the history at Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest. Kanaka Village or "The Village" which it is now called housed the Hudson Bay Company employees at Fort Vancouver in Washington state during the mid 1800s. Hundreds of Hawaiians were under the employ of Hudson's Bay Company which primarily traded beaver hide, lumber...

In the 1840s, Fort Vancouver was full of hardworking Hawaiians or Kanaka as they were called. The area they lived was outside of the main Fort and was known at one time as Kanaka Village. A hundred or so years later, during excavations of the area, archeologists discovered a piece of coral and helped cement the history of the trade relationship with Hawaii. Coral from the Islands supplied lime for fertilizer and whitewash, and mortar for the Fort’s chimneys. By 1845, Chief Factor Dr. McLoughlin asked the Hudson’s Bay Company to send to the Fort, a Hawaiian who was educated, trustworthy...

"Lomi lomi" in Hawaiian means to massage. In the local Island recipe, salt is massaged into fresh salmon and tomato and onions are added. It's a simple dish and a favorite staple at a lu`au. But salmon isn't found anywhere in Hawai`i. So where did this dish come from? Well, it came from the Pacific Northwest of the United States, of course. Salt being the preservative to keep it from spoiling in barrels on the way back to the Islands via the trans-Pacific shipping trade.By the 1830s, The Hudson Bay Company's exchange might include trading furs for knives and copper...

Welcome! E komo mai! We've been working very hard on getting our products online and are so excited to offer them to our global community.   Our mission is to share a little bit of history or mo`olelo but in a modern form. You'll notice that the prints in the "Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest" series are contemporary but in the colorful style of vintage travel prints. To have them of events that happened a hundred years previous is an unusual viewpoint. The prints also have a dark twist, enticing the viewer to act on coming to work for the fur trade which often...