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Traditional and Contemporary Māori Art

Kowhaiwhai patterns, carvings (whakairo), weaving (flax, cloaks) and tā moko are associated with Māori art. Explore traditional and contemporary taonga, designs, patterns, and famous Māori artists and their cultural practices. SCIS no. 1833745

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Kowhaiwhai-Kape-Rua rafter pattern

Kowhaiwhai-Kape-Rua rafter pattern

22 is termed "Kowhaiwhai-Kape-Rua" from a house at Te Kuri-a-Tuatai, near Gisborne. The white represents the pattern. Quantity: 3 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Ink and watercolour, 75 x 2...

Whales in Māori art

Whales in Māori art

This carving on the threshold of a meeting house depicts a tipua (ancestral or spiritual creature). Similar carvings are found in many East Coast meeting houses. This creature is taken from the sto...

Māori comb

Showing a Maori comb carved from bone New Zealand

Te Ana Māori Rock Art Centre

Te Ana Māori Rock Art Centre

Te Ana ('The Cave') Māori Rock Art Centre in Timaru was opened by Ngāi Tahu Whānui in 2010. The museum provides a cultural interpretation, in a variety of media, of some of the most significant exa...

Kowhaiwhai

Maori Art

This set includes a selection of images of kowhaiwhai, Maori rock art, Maori carving, Ta Moko, and Maori weaving.

Māori rock art

Māori rock art

Gerard O'Regan from the University of Auckland's Department of Anthropology discusses Māori rock art.

Five Māori painters at Auckland Art Gallery

Five Māori painters at Auckland Art Gallery

Explore the works of Kura Te Waru Rewiri, Robyn Kahukiwa, Emily Karaka, Saffronn Te Ratana and Star Gossage.

Te Māori, a cloak of words

Te Māori, a cloak of words

This episode of Koha looks at the milestone Te Māori exhibition that toured the United States in 1984.

Artist, John Walsh

Artist, John Walsh

John Walsh, the inaugural Curator of Contemporary Maori art at Te Papa, describes his extraordinary paintings as a dance to music. Charlotte Wilson visits him in his studio to ask about the role of...

Kete Aronui

Kete Aronui is a documentary series that features leading contemporary Māori artists.

How to look at Māori art in the 21st century

How to look at Māori art in the 21st century

Dr Rangihiroa Panoho has 22 years professional experience as a leading New Zealand curator and art historian and his specialist areas are Maori, Pacific, New Zealand and international indigenous ar...

Māori designs

The surfboard can be a work of art.

Tā Moko

Tā Moko is a half hour documentary on Māori tattoo.

Contemporary Māori art?

Contemporary Māori art?

What is contemporary Māori Art? That's been a question debated at the Toi Māori Art Market in Wellington.

Carved Māori door lintels

Carved Māori door lintels

gelatin silver 204 x 143 mm - No. 9 (l.c.) Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1984

Tame Iti

The man behind the moko.

Te Ika a Maui

acrylic on board 760 x 2240 mm - FJG 70 Māui stands astride the giant fish’s jaws; the line tight as this stylised superhero fishes up the North Island. Te Ika a Maui represents the first wave of c...

Homage to Eiffel

Homage to Eiffel

spray paint and wire 2100 x 1200 x 495 mm - Para Matchitt Para Matchitt studied carving under the tutelage of the renowned Pine Taiapa and has become one of the most successful contemporary Māori a...

Ko wai te waka e kau mai nei (What is this canoe that swims my way)

Ko wai te waka e kau mai nei (What is this canoe that swims my way)

Land, and Maori ancestral and spiritual connections to it, is the central concern of Buck Nin’s paintings. Of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toa descent, Nin expressed these connections in symbolic landsc...

Taranga

In 1982 Robyn Kahukiwa, of Ngati Porou, Te Aitangaa-Hauiti, Ngati Konohi and Te Whanui-o-Ruataupare descent, was awarded a Maori and South Pacific Arts Council grant to undertake a series of painti...

Reuben Paterson

Reuben Paterson

1000 x 1000mm; Glitter and diamond dust on canvas

Toki Poto, carved axe handle

Toki Poto, carved axe handle

There are many examples of everyday items that Māori embellished with carving. This one (others include paddles and firearms) is an axe handle. It has been ornately carved, leaving just enough spac...

Ornamental Canoe Heads, Paddles &c.

Ornamental Canoe Heads, Paddles &c.

Purchased, 2011 Lithograph, hand coloured 542 x 364mm 2011/242 ...

Wakahuia

Monument to Te Whero Whero's daughter, at Raroera Pa

Monument to Te Whero Whero's daughter, at Raroera Pa

Shows intricately carved wooden mausoleum (papatupapaku), about twelve or fourteen feet high, in which the body would have been placed upright. Angas visited New Zealand in 1844 Other Titles - Pa...

Four Māori girls and one young Māori man

Four Māori girls and one young Māori man

Shows four young women in cloaks, one with moko on chin, two with head feathers; behind the group is a man standing in profile, his face tattooed. The central woman with moko on her chin and lower ...

Whata, or patuka (Storehouses for food)

Whata, or patuka (Storehouses for food)

PLATE XXX. WHATAS, OR PATUKAS, STOREHOUSES FOR FOOD. IT is customary amongst the New Zealanders to erect within their Pahs, or about their Kaingas and plantations, storehouses for the reception of ...

Māori wooden carved gateway and wooden figure carvings at Ohinemutu

Māori wooden carved gateway and wooden figure carvings at Ohinemutu

Waharoa (Maori gateway) and wooden figure carvings at Ohinemutu, circa 1910. Photographer unidentified. Note on back of file print reads "Gateway `Tiki', Ohinemutu. Now in Auckland Museum." Quan...

Whakarewarewa village

Whakarewarewa village

Comprises scenes taken 7 July 2008 by Dylan Owen around Whakarewarewa Village, Rotorua. Shows Te Hokowhitu-A-Tu memorial arch, Maori guide holding corn cobs cooked in hot pool and talking to touris...

Tukutuku

Tukutuku is traditional Māori ornamental weaving done on panels and frequently used to decorate meeting houses.

Kete

Whao (carving chisel)

Whao (carving chisel)

Hei Tiki

The Hei tiki Tipuna Wahine.

Kotiate

A kotiate is a short hand club.

Three women wearing cloaks and headbands

Three women wearing cloaks and headbands

Three women wearing cloaks and taniko headbands sitting and standing on a flax mat above the Whanganui River. Photographed by James Ingram McDonald in 1921. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic ...

Women working on a tukutuku panel

Women working on a tukutuku panel

Tukutuku panels are an integral element in the interiors of meeting houses. They not only from the interior lining of the walls, but the stories and meanings of the iwi and hapu are literally woven...

Māori rock art – ngā toi ana

Māori rock art – ngā toi ana

Rows of clerks transcribe data in the cavernous and draughty Hood’s building in Wellington.

Ornamental canoe heads, and paddles

Ornamental canoe heads, and paddles

Shows Maori crafted objects: 1. Carved image of Te Rauparaha in one of his war canoes at Kapiti Island. 2. Decorated head of a war canoe belonging to Te Rauparaha 3. Carved head of a canoe at Kaiwh...

Kōauau

The most widely known traditional Māori instrument was the flute. Flutes were carved from wood, bone, stone, and even sperm whale teeth. Some wooden flutes are particularly noteworthy for the rich ...

A tribute to Peter Gossage

A tribute to Peter Gossage

A tribute to the great illustrator Peter Gossage by whanau member and author Paula Morris. Peter Gossage died last weekend. He was not quite 70 years old, but he’d been ill for a long time. I l...

Biography of Wi Taepa.

Artwork by Emily Karaka.

Māori wood carving, Te Puia, Rotorua

Māori art, design & culture

Tā moko: Māori tattoos: history, practice, and meanings.

Toi Māori Aotearoa: artists

Toi Māori Aotearoa promotes contemporary Māori arts through programmes and projects.

Māori creation story in sand art

Marcus Winter is an indigenous artist of New Zealand, and is the only "performance painter" of his kind in Australasia and the Pacific.

Reuben Paterson

Reuben Paterson is a dynamic young artist known for his creations in glitter and diamond dust.

Kakahu are Māori cloaks.

Star Gossage’s colour palette refers to the elemental forces of earth, sea and sky and her paints.

John Bevan Ford

One of New Zealand’s best known Māori artists.

Ngaahina Hohaia

Ngaahina Hohaia comes from a strong background in traditional weaving and fibre work.

Tā Moko is a documentary on Māori tattoo, including rare footage of internationally acclaimed Māori artist George Nuku getting a full-face moko.

John Bevan Ford

Artworks by John Bevan Ford.

Selection of Māori art images.

Fiona Pardington

Pardington’s early work is characterised by explorations in photographic technique.

Māori art for kids

Māori art for kids: make a hei tiki pendant.

- History of New Zealand painting

Between 1960 and 1980 a strong resurgence of Maori nationalism and culture developed alongside a growing political voice and demand for the honouring of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Traditional Māori symbols and meanings

Māori symbols are shared across many New Zealand art forms (tattoo art and pounamu carving especially).

Ngai Tahu pounamu

Ngāi Tahu are kaitiaki of all South Island greenstone, or pounamu.

Earth and Spirit

Bloodlines, blood ties, and the continuity of the human race: these are Robyn Kahukiwa's themes.

Whakapapa birth & death.

Diggeress Te Kanawa

Diggeress Te Kanawa was born in 1920 to Dame Rangimarie Hetet and Taonui Hetet.

Darcy Nicholas is a leading contemporary Māori painter, sculptor, writer, curator, events manager, and commentator.

Michael Parekowhai

Michael Parekowhai was born in Porirua in 1968.

Pou tokomanawa

Four pou tokomanawa, or post figures, in front of Heretaunga, a carved house at Taradale. The figure second from left was part of the exhibition Te Maori: Maori art from New Zealand collections tha...

Kete

This fine kete with its complex chequerboard pattern was probably made at Koroniti on the Whanganui River around 1920. Note the tightness of the weave – there is not a gap to be seen and that gives...

Māori group in front of a Masterton meeting house

Māori group in front of a Masterton meeting house

This photograph shows a Māori group of adults and children who are ancestors of the Reiri family. They are all in traditional dress in front of a whare puni, sometimes referred to as the 'Maui Hous...

Tawhiri Matea

This photograph features Cliff Whiting with his art work Tawhiri Matea (the God of the Winds). It was unveiled in 1978 for the Meteorological Service, and featured in the 1992 exhibition Headlands,...

Thigh moko

This intriguingly complex moko design was worn on the thigh. It is an example of how Māori art incorporated natural shapes – the koru or fern frond being the most well-known example. Though highly ...

Drawing on customary Māori art and European influences to varying degrees, Māori artists have produced some of New Zealand’s most significant and ground-breaking contemporary art.

History, politics and art are the subject of Shane Cotton’s work.

Kura gallery artists

Profile the work and background of some contemporary Māori artists.

Artworks by Shane Cotton.

Traditional Māori Culture and Customs

Traditional Māori Culture and Customs

The Māori world is rich in tikanga. Find out about the types of weaving, whakapapa, and whakairo, patterns (kowhaiwhai), moko, cooking a hāngī, waiata, dances (peruperu), legends and the protocol f...