Once in a while Metoro instead of ihe (tau) said tau avaga, which means a stone at a burial place, tau meaning stone and avaga meaning niche.

Ihe seems to mean a needle or point. (Though it is only a name for a fish in Vanaga.)

"…to enter a war canoe from either the stern or the prow was equivalent to a 'change of state or death'. Instead, the warrior had to cross the threshold of the side-strakes as a ritual entry into the body of his ancestor as represented by the canoe.

The hull of the canoe was regarded as the backbone of their chief. In laments for dead chiefs, the deceased are often compared to broken canoes awash in the surf." (Starzecka)

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)

3. Probably there is a further transformation of meaning (from a broken canoe to a dead chief) to the concept of domain of the dead. As such it may then be used in the calendars of rongorongo.

In the calendar of the year in Small Santiago (and in London Tablet) GD45 appears only at the very last phase of the year, with the death of the old year.

Similarly in the calendar of the year in Keiti the 24th and last period has GD45 (though this type of glyph appears also in e.g. the 13th period, where it may signify the death of the first half of the year).

Furthermore, if we regard GD73 as a combination including GD45, then the impression of domain of the dead is confirmed also in the 'calendar' of the day, where GD73 appears when the sun has disappeared behind the western horizon.