Only men above the rank of “maki” were allowed to decorate their dugout canoe with such a figurehead reminiscent of a frigate, a seabird with a wide-open beak, split to the base.
Against it is a figure with a diamond-shaped face, typical of this region of the archipelago. The large canoes indispensable to long-distance commercial maritime expeditions were equipped with an additional figure at the stern.
![Canoe prow Naho](https://www.barbier-mueller.ch/wp-content/uploads/figure-de-proue-1.jpg)
Photo: Studio Ferrazzini-Bouchet. Musée Barbier-Mueller