Coconut Milk

Dan Taulapapa McMullin

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780816530526
• eBook ISBN: 9780816599189
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Coconut Milk is a fresh, new poetry collection that is a sensual homage to place, people, love, and lust. The first collection by Samoan writer and painter Dan Taulapapa McMullin, the poems evoke both intimate conversations and provocative monologues that allow him to explore the complexities of being a queer Samoan in the United States.  

McMullin seamlessly flows between exposing the ironies of Tiki kitsch–inspired cultural appropriation and intimate snapshots of Samoan people and place. In doing so, he disrupts popular notions of a beautiful Polynesia available for the taking, and carves out new avenues of meaning for Pacific Islanders of Oceania. Throughout the collection, McMullin illustrates various manifestations of geopolitical, cultural, linguistic, and sexual colonialism. His work illuminates the ongoing resistance to colonialism and the remarkable resilience of Pacific Islanders and queer-identified peoples.

McMullin's Fa'a Fafine identity—the ability to walk between and embody both the masculine and feminine—creates a grounded and dynamic voice throughout the collection. It also fosters a creative dialogue between Fa'a Fafine people and trans-Indigenous movements. Through a uniquely Samoan practice of storytelling, McMullin contributes to the growing and vibrant body of queer Indigenous literature.

Table of contents

• Contents
• J, She, and the Eel
• Sa Moana Poem Number One
• Sa Moana Poem Number Two
• Sa Moana Poem Number Three
• Sa Moana Poem Number Four
• Sa Moana Poem Number Five
• Tiki Manifesto
• ‘O Kaulaiku
• The Seventh Wave
• Turtle Island Poem Number One
• Turtle Island Poem Number Two
• Turtle Island Poem Number Three
• Turtle Island Poem Number Four
• Turtle Island Poem Number Five
• Turtle Island Poem Number Six
• Turtle Island Poem Number Seven
• Turtle Island Poem Number Eight
• Turtle Island Poem Number Nine
• Turtle Island Poem Number Ten
• Turtle Island Poem Number Eleven
• Turtle Island Poem Number Twelve
• Turtle Island Poem Number Thirteen
• Turtle Island Poem Number Fourteen
• Turtle Island Poem Number Fifteen
• In Suva
• Laguna Beach Poem Number One
• Laguna Beach Poem Number Two
• Laguna Beach Poem Number Three
• Laguna Beach Poem Number Four
• Laguna Beach Poem Number Five
• Laguna Beach Poem Number Six
• A Drag Queen Named Pipi (at the Bone Bar)
• Pray
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number One
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Two
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Three
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Four
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Five
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Six
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Seven
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Eight
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Nine
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Ten
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Eleven
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twelve
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Thirteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Fourteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Fifteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Sixteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Seventeen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Eighteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Nineteen
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twenty
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twenty-One
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twenty-Two
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twenty-Three
• Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Twenty-Four
• The Bat
• Postscript