Our Story

In the early eighties a man named Kevin decided to travel to South America to experience something new. He brought home some folk art and later sold it in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show. Soon, a new lifestyle was born, and Kevin, like many of his generation, built a life as an importer, vending at festivals and shows until he eventually opened a little store in a growing town. Global Village is the clothing and gift shop on Main Street Sebastopol he launched in 1992 when he first became a dad. Kevin and wife Jaen spent over two decades connecting with the community and building the ethos of their store – natural materials from ethical sources. While Jaen ran the store, Global Village Imports, the family wholesale project, grew out of their home garage into a full-fledged wholesale business supplying other little hippy shops around the country.

From a backpack in the Andes to a Dead Head’s camp in a parking lot to a brick and mortar shop to this online store – Global Village Imports has is now in the second generation of management, with Anya and Rob, who in addition to loving Global Village, are passionate about preserving other heritage hippy stores.

Together, Kevin, Rob and Anya saved Worldly Goods, another such heritage shop operating thirty-years strong in Duncans Mills, California, a tiny mill town and former narrow gauge railroad stop established in the 1870s. Folks heading to Goat Rock Beach can find sarongs, kites, clothing, alpaca blankets, sweaters and gifts on their way to the coast and enjoy the century and a half history of the little shopping district.

Turtle Island Imports, where you find yourself now, has been our online retail site since the early 2000s back when it was cool to use comic sans (newly redesigned!). When you order from Turtle Island Imports, you are getting handcrafted folk art that has passed from the artisan’s hands to yours via the back of our shop in gorgeous Sebastopol, California.