During January 2011 the Once Upon An Island Trust in con junction with the Auckland Council are ran a week long programme of storytelling workshops under the rakau rangatira – the great chiefly pohutukawa of Whakanewha Regional Park on Waiheke Island New Zealand.

This tree has been the site of many community celebrations – weddings, birthdays, christenings and gatherings of family and friends. Undoubtedly if we understood the language of trees it could tell us many stories. It is a great, great, great grandparent of our island.

I wondered – had this tree witnessed the arrival of Te Ure Karaka – the great Maori Navigator or swayed in the wind as Captain Cook sailed past. Does it remember the sound of axes felling many of the giant trees that once covered Waiheke. Can it smell a picnic or feel a child climbing through its branches?

The pohutukawa is an iconic New Zealand tree and there are many explanations of its name. In one story, pohutukawa descended from Tangaroa, the atua/god of the sea and two of his off spring Hutu and Kawa. The word ‘Po’ is the word for darkness – Hine Nui Te Po is the atua of the ‘under/other world. The legendary roots of the pohutukawa of Cape Reinga, Te Reinga, are thought to travel to the place where the spirits of the dead return. To die is to slide down the roots of Te Reinga. The word hutukawa describes the red headdress of feathers warn by chiefs, and in one story, when the Maori of the Arawa waka first arrived in Aotearoa, so dazzled were they by the blazing red of the pohutukawa that they threw the red feather headdresses into the water exclaiming, “ The sacred colour of this place is redder than Hawaiki! I will throw my red headdress into the water.” Suggesting that the treasure of this new land were so great, that we should be prepared to let go of all the things we have bought with us.

Philip Simpson’s book, “ Pohutukawa & Rata – New Zealand’s Iron –Hearted Trees makes for fascinating reading and I strongly recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about this beautiful trees.