Dan Taulapapa McMullin

June 2 - July 4, 2022

Dan Taulapapa McMullin presents “The Healer's Wound: A Queer Thierstory of Polynesia”, an exhibit which further examines images and poetry produced for a book of the same name. “The Healer's Wound” is an artist's book collaged by poet Taulapapa McMullin based on their historical research in the queer cultures of their homeland Samoa and other Pacific Island countries.  The queer peoples of Polynesia formed societies of healers and traveling artists but these societies were suppressed during colonialism by America and Europe.  The book, through recovered images and texts, narrates the journeys of these indigenous queer cultures and how they came to continue to thrive today.  The exhibition includes large scale prints on canvas and works on paper.  

Dan Taulapapa McMullin is a Samoan fa'afafine artist and writer living on the unceded and ancestral homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok, the Peoples of the Waters that Are Never Still.  Their book of poems “Coconut Milk” (2013) was on the American Library Association Rainbow List Top Ten Books of the Year.  “The Bat” and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft.  They co-edited “Samoan Queer Lives” (2018) published by Little Island Press of Aotearoa, New Zeland.  Their work was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Metropolitan Museum, De Young Museum, Musée du quai Branly, Auckland Art Gallery and Bishop Museum.  Their film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award.  Their film “100 Tikis” was the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone in Montreal and was an Official Selection in the Fifo Tahiti Film Festival. 

“The Healer's Wound” is published by Pu'uhonua Society with Tropic Editions of Honolulu, and was first presented in February for the Hawai'i Triennial 2022.