'ohana

after watching the video on hula, hawaii, and the native hawaiians living in california i was thinking about what i know personally about hawaiian culture if anything. i oddly recalled a disney movie "lilo and stitch" and researched if any of the film makers had direct hawaiian influences when making the film set in hawaii based on a hawaiian family. this article attached was an interesting idea that the film makers never wrote into the script but added after staying on the island, the idea of "'ohana." in a technical sense the word means "family" but the they focused on the idea that hawaiians often have a wide spread meaning of family including extended members and family friends as close as their immediate mom, dad, siblings, etc. it was interesting the writer/director said they made a point to not clearly define "ohana" in the movie, as respect for hawaiian culture and the way they see as each family having their own definition of "ohana." i thought it was especially interesting in relation to the native hawaiians who moved to california and formed these amazing tight knit communities as perhaps their own "ohana." definitely worth a read, it's not too long!

http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/hawaiifilms/a/lilo_and_stitch_2.htm