​What does Ohana mean?

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“Ohana means family.
​Family means nobody gets left behind — or forgotten.”
​
— Lilo Pelekai, Lilo & Stitchʻ

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Part of Hawaiian culture, ʻohana means family (in an extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional). The concept emphasizes that families are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another. The term is similar in meaning and usage to the New ZealandMāori term whānau, and its cognate in Māori is kōhanga, meaning "nest".
In Hawaiian, the word ʻohana begins with an ʻokina, 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.[1][2][3]

Ohana is a key theme in Disney's 2002 film, Lilo & Stitch, and throughout its accompanying franchise.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
​
— Rumi
translation by Coleman Barks

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