Poorman, Beggarman, Thief (Thief)

Ko *Poorman, Beggarman, Thief (Thief)*, 1996 tētahi o ngā āhua e toru o tētahi hanganga tuatahi whakahirahira nā Michael Parekōwhai e whakawhitiwhiti ai i ngā kaupapa o te whakaaro horapa, te toihara, te tinihanga, te whakapapa. He hanga tangata tūturu kiri parauri e toru e whakakākahutia ki ngā hūtu me ngā hū pīataata. Ko te taitara o te hanganga he tohutoro ki te huarite kōhungahunga Ingarihi, ko ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief’, e kōrero ai mō ngā huarahi huhua e taea ai e te tangata. Mau ai i ia hanga tangata, i ia hanga tangata te tapanga ‘Hello my name is Hori’. I ngā wā o mua, ko Hori te ingoa taunu mō te tāne Māori i Aotearoa i ngā tau 1900, koia hoki te whakamāoritanga o George – te ingoa o te pāpā o Parekōwhai.

Ko tēnei puninga toi, e whakaaturia ana i ngā wāhi e toru o tēnei whakaaturanga, koia tētahi o ngā toi tuatahi e whakamahi ai a Parekōwhai i te ariā takitini. Kei te aro atu ia ki ngā whakaaro horapa e whiua ai ki te Māori, ka mutu he kōrero mō ngā raruraru e puta mai ai i te whenua kākanorua o Aotearoa, mō ngā take e pā ana ki te tuakiritanga. Ehara i te mea ko tā Parekōwhai ‘Hori’ he titiro ki ngā mahi toi; ko tāna kē, he titiro ki te rūma.

*Poorman, Beggarman, Thief (Thief)*, 1996 is one of three figures in an important and early sculptural installation by Michael Parekōwhai which traverses issues of stereotype, discrimination, duplicity and whakapapa (genealogy). Three life-size, brown-skin-tone mannequins are dressed in suits with neatly polished shoes. The title of the installation recalls the English nursery rhyme ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief’, which references different paths one might take in life. Each mannequin wears a name tag that reads, ‘Hello my name is Hori’. Historcially, Hori was a derogatory term for a Māori man popular in New Zealand society throughout the 1900s, but it is also a transliteration of George, Parekōwhai’s father’s name.

This installation, seen in three spaces, is one of the first in which Parekōwhai played with the notion of the multiple. In it he brings attention to some of the racial stereotypes levelled at Māori while pointing to tensions found in bicultural New Zealand and to issues of representation. Parekōwhai’s ‘Hori’ isn’t interested in reading the artworks; he is much more interested in reading the room.

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