ohana

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See also: Ohana and ʻohana

English

Etymology

A 1907 photograph of a Hawaiian ohana having a meal of poi[n 1]

Borrowed from Hawaiian ʻohana (family, kin).

Pronunciation

Noun

ohana (plural ohanas)

  1. (chiefly Hawaii) An extended Hawaiian family unit.
    • 1989 August 7, Maui Loa, “Testimony on Hawaiian Homestead Hearing, August 7, 1989”, in Administration of Native Hawaiian Home Lands: Joint Hearings before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, and the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives: One Hundred First Congress, First Session on Oversight Hearing on the Administration of Native Hawaiian Home Lands: August 8, 1989, Lihue, Kauai, Part 2 (S. Hrg.; 101-555, Pr. 2), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 1990, →OCLC, page 644:
      nder the leadership of Ka Lahui Hawai'i headed by attorney Mililani Trask, various Native Hawaiian organizations, ohanas, and individuals formed a loose coalition that some refer to as the Hawaiian Nation within a Nation.
    • 1992, Thomas Kemper Hitch, “The Polynesian Economy, Sixth Century to Mid-Nineteenth Century”, in Robert M. Kamins, editor, Islands in Transition: The Past, Present, and Future of Hawaii’s Economy, Honolulu, Hi.: First Hawaiian Bank, →ISBN, page 9:
      The ancient Hawaiian society that began around the sixth century and lasted until around 1000 A.D. was based on the extended family group, the ʻohana, living and working cooperatively on the ahupuaʻa under the leadership of the most respected person in the group, the haku. Most members of the ohana were engaged in agriculture, some in fishing, and some were artisans who probably devoted most of their time to their crafts; undoubtedly others were all three.
    • 1996, Margot Early, “Dear Reader”, in Mr. Family (Harlequin Super Romance; 711), Toronto, Ont., New York, N.Y.: Harlequin Books, →ISBN:
      Perhaps that is why Mr. Family celebrates the Hawaiian concept of ohana—not just family, but extended family. Through the characters of Mr. Family—Kal, Erika (who first appeared in The Third Christmas), Hiialo and their ohana—are purely imaginary, perhaps you can feel in these pages the love I've been fortunate to know.
    • 1997, Judith Modell, “(Not) In My Back Yard: Housing the Homeless in Hawaiʻi”, in Jan Rensel, Margaret Rodman, editors, Home in the Islands: Housing and; Social Change in the Pacific, Honolulu, Hi.: University of Hawaiʻi Press, →ISBN, page 201:
      In 1981, the Honolulu City Council passed a zoning regulation that borrowed from traditional Hawaiian living arrangements to allow for what is termed ʻohana housing: incorporating relatives into an existing structure or building an "'accessory to the principal permitted single-family dwelling' for extra residents [] In Nānā I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source), a book of Hawaiian customs and beliefs, the ʻohana is described as composed of people connected by ties of love and loyalty, duty and obligation. Members of an ʻohana may or may not be blood kin; they are related by virtue of sharing sustenance and support.
    • 1999, Houston Wood, “Disorientation: Unwriteable Knowledge”, in Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawaiʻi, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, part 1 (From Conquest to Anti-Conquest), page 53:
      So, in Hawaiʻi, banks and retailers now regularly emphasize bowdlerized Hawaiian concepts in their advertising, calling their companies "ohanas" (families), for example, or using images of nineteenth-century aliʻi (chiefs) and sacred symbols []
    • 2018 April 28, Kevin Dayton, Nanea Kalani, “More than $30M OK’d for ‘ohana zones’”, in Honolulu Star-Advertiser, archived from the original on 1 May 2018:
      The House and Senate are committing more than $30 million to establish “ohana zones” where the homeless can live, but are leaving it to Gov. David Ige’s administration to figure out the details.

Alternative forms

Translations

Notes

  1. ^ From the Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, University of Southern California Libraries, Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Further reading

Anagrams

Japanese

Romanization

ohana

  1. Rōmaji transcription of おはな (お- + はな)