Whānau
Whānau () is a Māori-language word for extended family. It is also used in everyday New Zealand English, as well as in official publications. In Māori society, the whānau is also a political unit, below the levels of hapū and iwi, and the word itself has other meanings: as a verb meaning "to be born or give birth". Whakapapa is Māori genealogy. First on the whakapapa comes the waka, the canoe on which the people first arrived in New Zealand. Second is the iwi (tribe), then the hapū (subtribe) and then whānau. Early Māori society. 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 ). Contemporary conceptions. Contemporary conceptions offer whānau in one of two ways: As a descent construct, ‘whānau’ has been variably described as “the extended family”, “the extended family or community”, or simply "family".