Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Dan Taulapapa McMullin is an artist and poet from Sāmoa Amelika (American Samoa). His book of poems Coconut Milk (University of Arizona Press, 2013) was on the American Library Association Rainbow List Top Ten Books of the Year.

Taulapapa's artwork has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum, De Young Museum, Oakland Museum, Bishop Museum, NYU's /A/P/A Gallery, and the United Nations. His performance poem The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft. His film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award.

His film 100 Tikis is an art appropriation video at the intersection of tiki kitsch and indigenous sovereignty, and was the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone First Peoples Festival in Montreal; and was an Official Selection in the Fifo Tahiti International Oceania Documentary Film Festival and at Pacifique Festival in Rochefort, France. His art studio and writing practice is based in Hudson, New York, where he lives with his partner Stephen. Taulapapa is currently working on a novel. His work can be viewed at www.taulapapa.com.

By this author

Samoan Queer Lives

Samoan Queer Lives is a collection of personal stories from one of the world’s unique indigenous queer cultures. The first of its kind, this book features a collection of autobiographical pieces by fa`afafine, transgender, and queer people of Sāmoa, one of the original continuous indigenous queer cultures of Polynesia and the Pacific Islands.

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