Moko designs and symbolism, like the other art forms and the culture it was born from, was never static. It is a dynamic form of expression that evolved in constant development, adapting to the changes in lifestyle. Validating its existence. It should be noted that over the last 200 years, there are Māori designs that have withstood the colonial process, and the speed by which the culture has changed.
images/tik-koru2.jpgKoru
One such design is the koru. However, when you closely inspect the developments of the last 60-100 years you will find too that the koru has undergone various changes. From those developments the koru grew an eye, a head, neck, body and tail. It was given by virtue of symbolism, human characteristics that, in turn, gave artists a license to design and use koru which could represent actual ancestral figures. You will note too that Koru is the single most used element in Moko. Even to the extent where what initially looks like a spiral, is actually double or triple grouped lines that spiral inward into a single koru. This grouping of spiraling lines, albeit of a circular nature, merely creates a spiral illusion, but is in fact, right in the centre, a koru. A Māori proverb says: