Koru

What it is

The koru is a spiral. In te reo Māori the word means a loop or a coil. Its line follows a silver fern frond as it opens out, so the pattern is often described as a shoot still curled on itself. Two readings are common. One is motion that keeps going, an unfurling that never finishes. The other lies in the inner turn, which points back to the place where the form began. The shape can stand alone or be repeated in a row, and it fits both carved wood and painted panel.

In Māori art

Kōwhaiwhai are painted patterns. They decorate the panels of a wharenui, a Māori meeting house, and the koru is the motif at their centre. Seen quickly, the painted work looks abstract, but each design is said to stand for a feature of the natural world. Many semi-formal versions exist. Carvers cut the spiral into wood, and tattooists work it into skin, which is why the same shape turns up on a meeting house wall and on a person. Its curve scales easily, from a small mark to a long repeating band.

Modern emblems

Air New Zealand put a koru into its logo in 1973, the year its first McDonnell Douglas DC-10 wide-body jet arrived. That version follows the Ngaru pattern of the Ngāti Kahungunu kōwhaiwhai tradition and is described as a sign of the country's plant life. Other national bodies took the same route. The Department of Conservation is one of several nationwide organisations whose marks include a spiral. So a motif long used in Māori art now also travels far beyond the meeting house.

The police koru

The New Zealand Police use their own versions of the pattern, and every form of the force's logo carries one. The force explains that the koru refers to te ao Māori, the Māori world, and celebrates the heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. It adds that the shape's suggestions of containment, protection and peace match its values, and that this repeats the force's commitment to Māori. Parts of the design carry further meaning, the force says: an eight degree angle stands for forward momentum, and a flat bottom for firm foundations.

Artists and Japan

In 1983 the painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser based an alternative banner for New Zealand on the spiral. Gordon Walters made a well known series of artworks from the same shape. Writers also note that koru swirls look like the tomoe, a spiral found in Japan, though each grew in its own place. The pattern's reach goes further still: the national korfball team is nicknamed The Korus. Whatever surface it is placed on, the shape itself stays a spiral.

How Koru is kept

There is no set rite attached to the koru. What people do with it is draw, carve or tattoo it. A carver cuts the curve into wood. A painter puts it into the kōwhaiwhai panels of a wharenui, either on its own or in a repeating line. A tattooist places it on skin. Organisations then borrow it: the police shape their own version for a logo, and other national bodies follow. In each case the same line is adapted to the space, turned, stretched or repeated. The motif is used rather than performed, so anyone meeting it will most often see it as part of something else.

When and where

The koru belongs to Aotearoa New Zealand, and it is strongest in Māori art: in the painted panels of wharenui, in carving and in tattooing. Today it also appears across the country in the signs of national bodies, including the police and the Department of Conservation, and in the logo of Air New Zealand. A similar swirl, the tomoe, exists in Japan.

What Koru means

Those who use the koru read several things in it. The first is new life, the shoot pushing out of the fern. Growth, strength and peace follow. The open curve is also said to carry the idea of movement that never ends, while the inner coil turns back to the beginning, so the shape can speak of renewal and of return at once. For the New Zealand Police it stands for containment and protection, and for a link to te ao Māori, the Māori world.

Questions people ask about Koru

See also

TivaevaeA traditional Polynesian art of artistic quilting made by women for gifts and ceremonies.WakaTraditional Māori canoes used for fishing, transport, and ceremony, built from single logs or stitched planks.Good FridayA solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.WhakapapaMāori genealogy, recited to place a person among ancestors, land and tribe

Good reading and sources

• Koru on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.