Ohana

For other uses, see Ohana (disambiguation).

Part of Hawaiian culture, ʻohana means family in an extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional. It emphasizes that family 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 actual Hawaiian culture the term ʻohana is strictly used for blood relations. Non-familial groupings always instead use the word "hui".

In Hawaiian, the word is ʻohana begins with an ‘okina, indicating a glottal stop.

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.

In contemporary Hawaiian economic and regulatory practice, an "ʻohana unit" is a part of a house or a separate structure on the same lot that may contain a relative but which may not be rented to the general public.

Sources

• Lilo & Stitch
• Wight, K. 1997. Illustrated Hawaiian Dictionary, The Bess Press.
• City & County of Honolulu 2003. Land Use Ordinance
• Whitney, Scott 2001 Inventing 'Ohana Honolulu Magazine, September, 2001, pp. 42–45
• 2010 www.ohana.ro, Copii si parinti | Ghid practic – Ohana