Ohana means family

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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 with the leading inverted apostrophe (ʻ) indicating a glottal stop or ‘okina.

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 life, 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.

Common names

David Ohana
Sharon Ohana
Eli Ohana
Ilana Ohana
Oren Ohana
Boaz Ohana
Yehuda Ohana
Asher Ohana
Dave Ohana
Yossi Ohana

References

• Lilo & Stitch: The Movie

• Wight, K. 1997. Illustrated Hawaiian Dictionary, The Bess Press.

• City & County of Honolulu 2003. Land Use Ordinance

• Ohana family