Everywhere around the world, in every different culture, people are grouped into families. The word family can be defined as a group of people bound together over time, because of mutual consent, birth and or adoptions/ placement or simply people who consume responsibilities for one other. As a result of this broad definition of the family, there are several different definitions of what a family really is. For example, the nuclear family exists and consists of a Father, Mother and their kin. This is what we call the norm in Canada. From here different families may branch off into blended families (divorced parents with children), extended families (relatives living with married couples and their children), and lone-parent/ single parent families. In each of these families there are ways of functioning daily so that each member feels that their needs are fulfilled. The six functions of the family as per The Vanier Institute of the Family can be shown in any of these different families. A perfect example of a family structure that is not generally common in our society, is the one shown in the movie Lilo and Stitch. Sisters Nani and Stitch were separated from their Mother and Father suddenly when they died in a car accident. Nani, being the eldest, was forced to become a parental figure for her younger sister Lilo. Together they show that even a broken family is still a good family and prove that the six functions of the family are not only needed in their lives to function properly, but in the lives of every family around the world.
When Lilo's parents died, Lilo carried the memory of "Ohana" with her. Ohana was a word her father taught her that meant "family". Throughout the movie Lilo references to Ohana and says, "Nobody gets left behind or forgotten." We can see that Nani and Lilo have formed their own kind of family, and because of the responsibility they share between one another, they prove they will do anything to stick together.
