Samoan Queer Lives

by Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Indigenous, Gender

202 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2024

About the author

Dan Taulapapa McMullin an artist and poet from Sāmoa-i-Sisifo (Eastern Samoa). Their new artist book, The Healer's Wound (2022), is co published by Pu'uhonua Society and Tropic Editions of Honolulu. Their book of poems Coconut Milk (2013) was on the American Library Association Top Ten LGBT Books of the Year. Their recent book Samoan Queer Lives (2018) is a collaboration with the Fa'afafine community. Their poem The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award. Their film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award. Their film 100 Tikiswas the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone First Peoples Festival. Their art studio and writing practice is based in Hudson, New York, where they lives with their partner.

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars!

I remember the first time I ever encountered a fa’ afafine, was in a pub in an Auckland suburb. I asked my Kiwi cousin why a 6ft plus man, built like an All Black was wearing make-up and dressed as a woman and wearing heels and he explained to me. For those unfamiliar with the term, a more familiar yet loose comparison would be the lady boys in Thailand, though they are far more integrated and accepted in their society than the LGBTQI people from Samoan extraction are in theirs.

Samoa and most Pacific Islands nations are rife with homophobia, the values and beliefs enforced by the LMS (London Missionary Society) made a huge influence on the region and played a significant part in this. Their legacy is alive and well today, in fact a recent high profile case exploded in Australia, only last week with rugby player, Israel Folau (born in Australia but of Tongan heritage) making some outrageously hateful and homophobic comments on social media under the guise of Christianity, which shows how acceptable many still believe it is in 2019.

In their native Samoa the fa’ afafine have been blamed for many things including HIV/AIDS, STIs and in some cases even global warming, unfortunately this is largely to do with the intolerance and ignorance preached by religious leaders. But of course this book isn’t just about the fa’ afafine, although most of the book is allocated to their struggle, but as the title suggests it’s about those who identify with having queer lives.

We really do get quite a broad selection and background, there are the recurrent themes of struggling with identity, bullying and coming out to parents, living a lie for years, sometimes decades and we hear about families who accept and those who reject, but it’s the many differing paths that these people took in adulthood, which add a further interesting dimension, so that we get to hear from a lawyer in Australia, someone who has spent time in jail in the US and a Justice of the Peace in New Zealand to name but a few.

It is a peculiar fact that some smaller Pacific Island nations have more people living in NZ than they do in their own countries. As Auckland is regarded as the most Polynesian city in the world, with NZ also having the largest concentration of Pasifika in the world, with Samoans making up the largest proportion, it is no surprise to find that we get quite a large selection from people who have grown up or chose to live in New Zealand.

The authors have gone easy with the editing process to give the interviewees a clearer and more authentic voice, they have also ensured that they have got a fairly broad age group as well as social class, we hear from well educated professionals as well as manual workers and people in the performing and creative arts. There are those who are fairly private and others more flamboyant. There are some stories of excess too, tales of drink, drugs, prostitution and AIDS.

This book and books like it are hugely important as they give a platform and a voice to a relatively small community of people who are largely unknown to most of the world outside of the Southern Hemisphere, and these accounts really help give a better insight into what these people experience and endure, and also remind us of the need for tolerance, understanding and acceptance.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of reflections from Samoans, both resident and ex-pat, about their experiences of being queer. It is not, unlike many such compendiums, a series of authored writings. Rather McMullin and Kihara have interviewed many of the authors, and the book consequently has some of the feel of oral history. This is both tantalising and satisfying, in different parts, as the pieces wander into unexpected alleyways of focus, often defying narrative expectations. The book is written on the terms of the authors, which is always the best kind of anthology. There is a very helpful glossary provided to help the non-Samoan reader keep up, but otherwise - this is people telling their own stories for their own folks.
On show here are a strong range of experiences, both from those who identify as Fa'afafine, with or without reservations, and those who don't, with or without reservations. The worlds of Samoa - traditional, religious and modern aspects - and the US West Coast Soman communities, in particular, come to live, as do Hawaii's gay bars. There is a literary play, as well as conversational pieces. It should be too eclectic, but somehow, it really works as a volume.

[Harold Coutts · Rating 5 out of 5]

i don't think i could recommend this book enough. truly beautiful

[Tycho Toothaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly fascinating stories.