WhÃÂnau () is the MÃÂori word for the basic extended family group. Within MÃÂori society the whÃÂnau encompasses three or four generations and forms the political unit below the levels of hapà « (subtribe), iwi (tribe or nation) and waka (migration canoe). These steps are emphasised in MÃÂori genealogy as a person's whakapapa.
In pre-contact MÃÂori tribal organisation the whÃÂnau historically comprised a family spanning three to four generations, and would number around 20 to 30 people. It formed the smallest partition of the MÃÂori society.
The kaumÃÂtua (tribal elders), senior adults () such as parents, uncles and aunts, and the sons and daughters together with their partners and children. Large whÃÂnau lived in their own compound in the pÃÂ. WhÃÂnau also had their own gardening plots and their own fishing and hunting spots. The whÃÂnau was economically self-sufficient. In warfare, it supported and was necessarily supported by the iwi (tribe) or hapà « (sub-tribe).
The whÃÂnau would look after children and grandchildren collectively, so the loss of a parent was less likely to be devastating to a child's upbringing. In the case of orphaned children, the child would be taken in by the process of whÃÂngai adoption. This form of adoption is still practised and has some legal codification in New Zealand.
Contemporary conceptions offer whÃÂnau in one of two ways:
As a descent construct, has been variably described as 'extended family', 'extended family or community', or simply 'family'.