"Te Toi Whakairo" is the Maori word for the art of carving, and the elaborate and distinctive carvings of the Maori people are the most widely recognized aspect of their art. The Maori created elaborate meetinghouses (called "whare runanga" in Maori) with carved designs of heads, curves and lizards running along the gables of the house and the front edges. These houses often represented and were named after an important tribal ancestor.
Maori carvings were often painted the colors red, white and black, and the ancestral meeting houses often had large, decorative wall paintings indoors. These paintings matched the design elements in carving, with use of curves, spirals, the human form and lizards.
Maori art features curves, circles and spiral designs far more than straight lines. In addition to spirals, lizards feature prominently in Maori art. In fact, the only animal featured in traditional Maori art are lizards, though Maori art in modern times features a wider variety of animals. Many Maori carvings and sculptures were tinted with red ochre.
The spiral that featured prominently in Maori carvings and paintings was also common in Maori tattooing. Maori men were the most heavily tattooed, primarily on the face. Facial tattoos showed rank, occupation, birth and many other important aspects of a person's social class. Maori women, though less heavily tattooed, often had tattoos around the mouth and chin in curved and spiral designs.