New Website and a New Video, Plus An Explanation of Our Hawaiian Tattoo Art

Aloha

It’s Raw Poke Shop would like to say mahalo to our Hawaiian braddah for hooking us up with a new look.  Now you can easily check in with us on our slick new site. Joe’s company is called Techie Design. They do websites for small businesses from San Diego and Hawaii alike. Joe also hooked us up with this great little video with music from the legendary Kaau Crater Boys.

Authenticity is Key

Authenticity has always been a priority to us. You can taste the commitment to tradition in the flavor of our poke. When choosing someone to help us establish our online presence Joseph Abraham was a given. Being of Native Hawaiian ancestry and growing up on the island of Maui, he has a vast understanding of Hawaiian culture and traditions.

He used traditional Polynesian ‘tatau’ which he designed himself, specifically for the site. You’ll notice that many of the designs we use in our site are staggered triangles. These triangles are a symbol of teeth, usually of a shark. We are a poke shop and we eat like the shark eats.

This pattern represents the ‘kalo’ fields. Kalo is used to make ‘poi,’ a standard among Hawaiians. While we don’t serve poi because the supply is scarce, traditionally poi would be served with poke.

You will also notice that we have symbols of stacked triangles. When triangles are assorted this way they represent the spear. The spear is significant in ancient Hawaii because it represents both life and death. A spear represents life in that it is used to hunt, both on land and in the sea. Food from hunting provides sustenance. At our store, we sell both pork and fish, which would be caught with the spear. The spear represents death because it is a weapon. In ancient Hawaii, tribal war was part of tribal life.

These patterns represents the mountains. In the Hawaiian Mythos, the mountains represent seclusion. Only a small segment of the population called Kahuna would venture far from the sea. The mountains were where deities reside. For us, the pattern represents us being so far form our island home and reminds us to be true and uncompromising in our culture and work.

These patterns represent the kapa sleeping mat. For Hawaiians, your place of rest was significant in that it represents the cycle of your life. The patterns represents home. Hawaiians were always a seafaring people, thus the ability to sleep in the same place multiple times was seen as a blessing from the gods. For us, the kapa mat represents out thankfulness for our community here in Ocean Beach. We are also thankful for all who support the store.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little about Hawaiian tatau.

Mahalo

Please share this post to help get the word out about our new site. Please let us know what you think of the website and share our it (itsrawpokeshop.com) on all your social media platforms. Aloha!