Wairua

Wairua is not presented in the cited material as a mythic origin figure but as a foundational concept in Māori ontology: the non-physical spirit distinct from the body and from mauri (the life principle). The dictionary definition frames wairua as that part of a person which endures beyond death, and contemporary health and cultural sources place wairua within practices of spiritual care (taha wairua), indicating its role as an enduring dimension of personhood rather than a discrete created being.

The provided sources do not ascribe a consistent visual or sensory form to wairua. Definitions treat it as an abstract, non-physical spirit; the dictionary notes that some people conceive the wairua as residing in the heart or mind while others see it as part of the whole person, reflecting variable cultural understandings rather than a single corporeal appearance.

Sources do not list mythic 'powers' for wairua in the manner of an agentive supernatural being. Instead, wairua functions as the dimension of a person that persists after physical death and is the object of spiritual wellbeing. Because wairua is distinct from mauri and the body, it can be tended, affected by care practices, and is implicated in health and wellbeing discourse (taha wairua).