Pōhutukawa connects us to our loved ones that have passed on.
Māori belief determines that when an individual dies, their spirit leaves their body and undertakes a journey along Te Ara Wairua, the pathway of the spirits. This journey ends at the northernmost point of the North Island at a place called Te Rerenga Wairua (the departing place of the spirits). The dead travel along the rocky ledge towards the ocean where an ancient pōhutukawa tree stands. They then descend the aka (root) of this tree and disappear into the underworld. Below Te Aka, the long dry root of the pōhutakawa which does not quite reach the sea, is Maurianuku, the entrance to the underworld.
Pōhutakawa is the whetū that connects Matariki to the deceased and it is the reason why people would cry out the names of the dead and weep when Matariki was seen rising in the early morning.
