The Learner

Two sisters, Gigi and Angi, sit silently in the car on the way to surf, refusing to speak to each other. Their tiff continues as they get ready to paddle out. As tension builds, the narrative shifts to a dance inspired by the story of Hi‘iakaikapoliopele and her older sister, Pele. When the tumultuous journey of Pele and Hi‘iaka comes to a close and the two reconcile, Gigi and Angi reconnect to each other and enjoy their morning surf.

Through layers of space, time and memory across the ocean and ʻāina (land) on Maui, a diasporic Kānaka (Hawaiian) remembers how to connect back to themselves, their family and their lover.

Through painting, poetry, and film, artist Dan Taulapapa McMullin disrupts colonial narratives by reimagining archival documentation and queer Pasifika history. For McMullin, the archive is not a static repository of the past but a living, evolving site of resistance, imagination, and survival– one that unsettles dominant histories and opens space for new possibilities.