2. A dead chief could be 'deposited' in part of a canoe:

"There is no need to go into detail regarding the further creeds and customs [in addition to the belief in Kane / Tane] in which various Maori-Polynesian tribes follow the pattern of their Northwest Coast neighbors, such as nose rubbing as a salute, topknots as masculine coiffure, feathers of big birds as hair decoration, head flattening, body tattooing, finger severance, fire walking, armor for combat, the tongue as a symbol of defiance, and weapons carved as stylized heads with an outstretched tongue as the blade, the ignorance of stringed musical instruments which had their main world center between India and Indonesia, and a Maori repetition of the Northwest Coast rattles, percussion instruments, and the wooden flute or flageolet carved as a grotesque human face with sound issuing from its wideopen mouth, the system of taboo, the dread of burial in the ground and preference in both areas of placing the dead on wooden platforms raised on poles, the dried-up remains or skeletons wrapped in bark blankets and deposited in a sitting position with knees below chin in caves, trees, or (also in both areas) in part of a canoe." (Heyerdahl 2)

Moon is the celestial 'person' closest to the earth, governing the tides and exhibiting the pattern of a woman. The menstrual cycle is correlated with the phases of the moon, and it is woman who gives birth, not man. Man instead takes lives, he is a warrior.

A dead chief in a 'dead canoe' could illustrate the conjunction of a dead man with a dead woman. And there could be a further transformation of meaning - from a 'broken' chief inside a broken canoe - to the concept of a domain for the dead. As such it may possibly have been used in the calendar texts of rongorongo.

The 'dead chief' in question is a natural continuation in thought leading from the great chief standing tall in tagata.