Ohana

Part of Hawaiian culture, ʻohana' means family in an extended sense of the term including both blood-related or extended. It emphasizes that family and friends are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another. The term is cognate with (and its usage is similar to) the New Zealand Māori term "whānau".

In Hawaiian, the word is "ʻohana" with the leading inverted apostrophe (ʻ) indicating a glottal stop or "‘okina."

In contemporary Hawaiian life, an "ʻohana unit" is a part of a house that may contain a grandparent or may be rented to the general public. ʻOhana is one of the themes of Lilo & Stitch ("ʻOhana means family, and Vicky and Bang don't get left behind. Or forgotten.").

The root word "ʻohā" refers to the root or corm of the kalo, or taro plant (the staple "staff of life" in Hawaii), which Kanaka Maoli consider to be their cosmological ancestor.


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