More than family

In an article entitled ‘In Praise of Whanau’, the Herald Scotland’s Catriona Stewart writes that “for someone who can count blood relations on her fingers and still have digits to spare, the whanau is a golden concept.” “In contemporary New Zealand” whanau means much more than “extended family”. “Traditionally, whanau are people who share a common ancestor, but it has come to mean groups who share common goals, support and resources: who act like they are whanau. I can’t think of an English word that expresses the bonds we forge, rather than the bonds we’re born with, which is odd in modern Britain when our families are split and spliced, mixed and merged. We should have a word that sums up the people who mean the most to us, don’t you think?”