New Zealand - Maori Culture - Maori Women and Children - Circa 1940 - Tanner Couch Ltd. - Tourism Photo Booklet #601641 - Whānau is a Māori-language word for extended family. It is sometimes also used in New Zealand English, particularly in official publications. - In Māori society, the whānau is also a political unit[citation needed], below the levels of hapū and iwi, and the word itself has other meanings: as a verb meaning to be born or give birth. - In the Māori tribal organisation the whānau comprises a family spanning three to four generations. It forms the smallest partition of the Māori society. - In the ancient Māori society, before the arrival of the Pākehā, a whānau consisted of the kaumātua (tribal elders), senior adults such as parents, uncles and aunts, and the sons and daughters together with their partners and children. - Large whānau lived in their own compound in the pā. Whānau also had their own gardening plots and their own fishing and hunting spots. - The whānau was economically self-sufficient. In warfare, it supported the iwi (tribe) or a hapū (sub-tribe). (source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whānau)