Native Hawaiians and former Hawaii residents who live on the mainland talked with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about their lives, joys and challenges far away from Hawaii.

Ka‘onohi Hew Len

California-born Ka‘onohi Hew Len, 27, understands the struggles Native Hawaiians face to stay close to their culture outside of Hawaii.

He said his dad, William Hew Len, and mother, Maile Hew Len, who left Hawaii during their school years, raised him with Hawaiian values and culture. By his teen years Hew Len was already part of California-based Ka Ehu Kai, a Hawaiian band led by Tennyson Lum.

That’s why Hew Len made the decision to attend college at Brigham Young University Hawaii in Laie. There he worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center, performing in its “Ha: Breath of Life” show, and he later worked for Malu Productions.

While at PCC he met his wife, Paisley, 27, the daughter of Nephi and Roberta Setoki.

They married in 2019 at the Laie Hawaii Temple and then moved to Provo, Utah, so that Paisley could finish her degree. The couple said they had intended to return to Hawaii after graduation; however, their plans changed after they fell into financial crisis after suffering two miscarriages.

They could no longer afford to return to Hawaii, and instead opted to move to Las Vegas, where the cost of living was lower and Hew Len’s parents were now located.

The couple, who now has a 13-month-old daughter, Neriah, is settling into Las Vegas, where they have bought their first home. Hew Len is a solo performer and works at MGM Resorts as a Security Academy instructor. Paisley is pursuing a master’s degree and works in behavior analysis.

Sanoe Suguitan

Sanoe Suguitan, 39, owner of Pretty Ululani, a small island-style jewelry and Hawaiian goods retail business in Las Vegas, has been on the move in business and in life.

Originally from Kauai, she initially tried to find the land of opportunity on Oahu, where she worked in advertising at the Star-Bulletin and then started a hula group in Ewa Beach.

“Although I had my own studio on Oahu and had almost 100 students, I still wasn’t able to save,” she said.

Family in Arizona convinced her to move the dance studio where there was less competition and many people were searching for a legitimate hula group.

She moved her hula classes to Las Vegas when her finance, Brad Thompson, got a better job opportunity, which helped the couple buy a home.

COVID-19 forced the closure of her dance studio. Desperate to earn extra money, she searched through her home to see what she could sell to help support the family, which includes daughters Rya and Ivy.

“I found a little bracelet that I had never worn because it was too small,” Suguitan said. “I put it up for sale on the Ninth Island Connection, and within two minutes I had 100 comments from people who wanted to buy it. “

“Demand for Hawaii products was so strong,” Suguitan said. “I started selling items from the back of my truck. Then came meet-ups, pop-ups and then a brick-and-mortar.”

Check out the business at www.prettyululani.com.

Noelani Paselio

Noelani Paselio, 50, owner of the burgeoning candy company Sweet Kings Las Vegas, has found the sweet life in Las Vegas.

Paselio, who is from Kaneohe, moved to Las Vegas in 2007 with her husband, Petelo Paselio, and daughter Anuhea, who now helps her run the candy business. The couple, who worked in Hawaii’s hospitality industry, was motivated to move to Las Vegas by friends who had moved there years before.

“We said if it doesn’t work out, we could always move back,” Paselio said. “But now I don’t see myself moving back. We bought a house. We couldn’t have done that in Hawaii.”

Paselio worked in hospitality in Las Vegas until candy eating during COVID-19 inspired her and her daughter to start making their favorite Hawaii-style gummy candies, with li hing mui and Pica Pica.

Las Vegas’ Hawaiian population, the third largest in the country, has helped build momentum. They don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, but they are in other stores such as Pretty Ululani and offer sales through events, Facebook and their website, sweet

kingslv.com/collections/all.

Paul Pu‘ukani Sebala

The birth of a child inspired Paul Pu‘ukani Sebala, the 53-year-old owner of Pipeline 2 Paradise Radio, Las Vegas’ 24-hour Hawaiian and island music station, and his wife, Laura, to leave Hawaii and move to Las Vegas.

“Our son Kamakana, now 21, was born premature at 1 pound, 7 ounces,” Sebala said. “He stayed at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children for three months. He was still only 5 pounds when he was discharged.”

Sebala said his son’s fragile start reiterated the importance of family and inspired the couple to join his mother, Nora Sebala, and his sister, who had moved to Las Vegas five years prior.

Sebala, who grew up in a Halawa housing project, said the choice to move to Las Vegas was strictly based on family, and the couple plans to return to Hawaii one day.

“I’m not Native Hawaiian by blood. I come from a Filipino family, but I grew up in a Hawaiian and Samoan housing area. I gravitated to the Hawaiian side of the culture. That’s the culture that raised me and the values that I follow today.”

The couple was able to get good jobs in Las Vegas and buy two homes, though they lost the first one in the 2008 financial crisis. Seven years ago they were able to buy the home where they now live and where Sebala operates his radio station.

“The reason why I started the radio station was to stay connected to back home. With the music comes the language with the songs. It tells the story of the culture that I was raised in and reminds me of the history of Hawaii,” he said.

Check out the business at pipeline2paradise.com/index.html.

Luana Tupou

Luana Tupou was born at Wahiawa General Hospital but has lived in Oregon, Texas, California, Utah, Arizona and, most recently, Las Vegas.

While Tupou moved to the mainland as a small child and likely won’t move back to Hawaii, she has never forgotten her island life.

“I remember running around the mango tree at the house in Pupukea,” she said. “You didn’t have the stress. You just had the ability to live, but then again, I was a kid. I didn’t have the worries of the parents, the struggles, the stress. I just felt the free.”

Tupou, who is Samoan and German, said that she has managed to stay connected to the culture of Hawaii across the states. Her friend Terry Nacion, a fellow Realtor, helped her and her husband, Tieni, find a home in Las Vegas big enough for their 11-year-old twins, Sosaia and Samisoni, as well as the seven older children from their blended family who come to visit.

The couple chose a house in Henderson, a Nevada suburb that is popular with Polynesians and Hawaiians. They settled on a home in the district for Liberty High School, which embraces football players with a Polynesian background.

“The first thing you do is find out where the Polynesians and Hawaiians hang out. That’s where you feel at home. The people are home,” she said.

Terry Nacion

Terry Nacion visited her brother in Las Vegas in 2002, and when she returned to Hawaii promptly convinced her husband, David Nacion, to move in search of better opportunities.

The couple, who lived in a 700-square-foot rental in Waipio with two elementary school-age children, Joshua and Gabby, were at a crossroads in their careers and in life. She was working as an events coordinator. He was selling Kirby vacuums. They were stretched in every way.

“We couldn’t take vacations. If we stayed in Waipio, our kids would need to go to Waipahu Intermediate, and that didn’t sit well with me. I wanted a better school for them,” she said.

Six months later the couple sold most everything they owned for about $3,000 and set out for Las Vegas with the rest of their belongings in eight suitcases.

“I remember looking down at Las Vegas from the plane and seeing all the flat space and thinking, ‘Wow. There’s so much opportunity here.’”

The gamble paid off. David Nacion got into banking, and Nacion now is a Realtor at Xpand Realty, which caters to the Native Hawaiian and Polynesian market.

The pair put their children through college and were able to buy a home, where they added a pool with sand-colored concrete that reminds them of Hawaii.

“In Hawaii we couldn’t buy. We couldn’t even make rent,” Nacion said.

Shai Unciano-Walter

Shai Unciano-Walter and her daughter Shanice Walter are slated to open a new 2 Scoops of Aloha Las Vegas Drive Inn restaurant today.

The new restaurant, at 9620 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Suite N-2, is at least three times the size of their previous location and is a testament to Las Vegas’ growing Hawaiian and Polynesian population.

For years the mother-daughter duo did the festival and food truck circuit. They opened their first 2 Scoops of Aloha Las Vegas Drive Inn in 2017.

The restaurant was inspired by the family’s love of Hawaiian food, which they missed after leaving Oahu in 1999 when Unciano-Walter’s husband, Chad, got offered a promotion with Sam’s Club.

“It was really a struggle at first because we missed home,” said Unciano-Walter, who was born and raised in Waipahu. “The first New Year’s Eve without the fireworks, I cried.”

Getting into the Hawaiian food business was cathartic because it connected Unci-ano-Walter to more people from Hawaii. It also connected her to her family’s history in Hawaii as her grandparents Navy chef Steve Vergara Sr. and Connie had operated a Waipahu-based food truck called the Lunch Wagon.

“We still use family recipes today,” Unciano-Walter said.