Diasporic (Be)longing: Dan Taulapapa McMullin's ‘The Viole(n)t Cat’

Abstract

This article explores the multiple contexts behind ‘The Viole(n)t Cat’ by expatriate poet, Sāmoan Dan Taulapapa McMullin, now resident in the US. It is especially concerned with the ways in which the poem crosses national and hemispheric boundaries while remaining embedded in multiple instances of the local and translocal. While the poem begins in Turtle Island, it soon considers the twin islets of Ofu and Olosega in American Sāmoa, places of striking natural features. While evoking this beauty, the poem also suggests the significance of the strait between the islands and its notable role as a symbol of the long and intertwined relationship between Sāmoa and Tonga over many centuries. The wider context of ongoing Polynesian longing and mobility, producing not only the Polynesian triangle itself but also its contemporary diaspora, evokes the original homeland, Hawaiki, as both literal origin and ongoing ontological sustenance.