1(in Maori culture) adoption of a child within an extended family.
the rules for whangai varied between tribes
as modifierone of the big debates over several generations has been about whangai children
Example sentencesExamples
So the issue of whangai and adopted children, so far as the Adoption Act of 1955 and also the Human Rights Act are concerned, is a real issue.
And the issues surrounding Whangai adoptions are revisited in Inside New Zealand: Whangai - Who Gets Baby?
The Native Health Act of 1909 meant that Maori women could no longer breast feed, nor use whangai systems to adopt children.
We had quite a discussion at the select committee about the issue of whangai, and how those people fit in.
In respect of whangai, without a legal adoption there is still room for the tikanga of a particular tribe to apply.
The issue with regard to whangai is very important to Maori.
Maori people, with great anxiety, a huge amount of consultation, and a great degree of angst, thought very carefully about the process of whangai.
We said that surely on issues of whangai, the expressions in the bill should be closely aligned to what that iwi wanted.
I am aware we need to consider the recognition of whangai.
As she will be aware, respective iwi have their own tikanga in terms of whangai.
1.1count nounA child who has been adopted within an extended family.
Timoti was a whangai and a very spoilt one at that
Example sentencesExamples
For one participant being a whangai was seen to provide both benefits and tensions.
I have never ever heard of a neglected whangai.
Most of the whangai she interviewed "recall their homes nostalgically as happy, caring places".
Is that definition limited strictly to whangai who are descended by blood from their original family?
The play looks at the stresses caused by having different degrees of fluency in Maori, as the children, students and whangai of a Maori educator gather at his tangi.