“Family’s not just what you’re born into. I mean, yeah, obviously who you share your genes with is important. But you can share genes with someone and be totally different—Moa says that there are enough people in anyone’s family tree that you can average out the bad influences, or focus on the best ones. But whanaungatanga[25] isn’t just about being related to people, it’s about bonding through shared struggles and loyalty. So you can have someone in your whanau who isn’t a blood relative—like how Anne was one of us, even before she married Gerald and legally became our family.”
