Māori symbols and their meaning
What are 6 Māori symbols, Māori designs and their meanings?
Popular Māori designs are:
- Koru
- Fishhook
- Tiki
- Wheku
- Manaia
- Pikorua
The koru: New Life, new beginnings, growth, and harmony
You can find all of these beautiful Māori designs on our site, either as a standalone carving or incorporated in Māori trophies, Māori wall art, Māori greenstone pendants, gift boxes, prints to name a few.
A bush walk at Waihi Beach with my sister, Bo, was really beautiful. We came across quite a few ponga (silver ferns), and they just needed photographing. Delicate little koru that would unfurl very soon.
The koru is the unfurling of a silver fern frond, reaching toward the light. New Zealand's native bush is full of them, quietly uncurling after rain, and NZ artists have been capturing that movement in wood, bone, and pounamu for centuries.
What makes the koru so enduring is what it speaks to: the idea that everything is reborn and continues. That new life keeps unfolding. That no matter what has passed, renewal and hope for the future are always possible.
There's a Māori proverb that captures this beautifully:
"Ka hinga atu he tētēkura, ka hara mai he tētēkura"
As one fern frond dies, one is born to take its place.
The spiral itself has been called the 'geometry of life' — a sacred shape found across cultures and centuries, always pointing toward creation and movement. In the koru, that universal meaning meets something deeply rooted in Aotearoa.
Please find more information about the small carvings on a stand created by our Māori artist Mike Carlton and his team:
Koru, fishhook, pikorua, tiki, wheku and manaia.
Koru
The koru design represents new beginnings, new life, growth, harmony. A koru is an unfurling of a silver fern frond.
A gift with a koru design makes a heartfelt gift for almost any new beginning:
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The fishhook, Hei matauThe fishhook is another popular design. From NZ bone carvings, to Māori trophies, to New Zealand wall art. The matau represents:
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Pikorua, double twistComprising a seamless ring twisted to form two or more adjoining circles. Miro Porowhita is said to represent the circle of life, which has no beginning or end, and as such is regarded as the symbol of eternity. Also friendship, love, and the joining of lives for eternity. The pikorua represents:
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Tiki
The origins of tiki are uncertain but throughout Māoridom he is acknowledged as the first man and that he came from the stars. The bearer of this symbol is said to possess great knowledge and strength of character.
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WhekuIt is important to note that the figures in Māori carving, with rare exceptions, are not religious, but secular. They do not represent idols, but renowned tipuna (ancestors) of the iwi (tribe). The wheku are stylished faces of ancestors. Wheku are often carved at meeting houses and other important structures.
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ManaiaManaia are important to Māori. During life they are protectors from evil and accident. At death they guide the spirit of the departed home to their ancestors. The manaia is said to protect one from evil. A spiritual guardian.
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Aotearoa.co.nz is a NZ gift shop based in the charming historic Devonport Village, Auckland, NZ, since 1997.
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