ohu
1. (verb) (-a) to work as a volunteer group, do as a working party, do cooperatively.
Mā tātau katoa e ngaki te purapura i ruia nei e tō tātau kaumātua, kore hoki e oti i te tangata kotahi te mahi, engari me ohu te mahi ka oti ai - koia nei tā onamata tū whakaaro, tāne, te wahine, te iti, te rahi, me pā katoa ki te mahi (TPH 27/3/1905:2). / We will all cultivate the seeds sown by our elder and it will not be done by one person, but the work should be done as a working party so that it is completed - that was the attitude in former times, men, women, the lowly and the important people, they should all participate in the task.
Ka rite ki te mahi a te Māori o mua; ka ohua te tua o te rākau hei waka (TWMNT 6/3/1872:52). / It is like the way Māori worked in former times when a tree was felled for a canoe by a working party.
2. (modifier) working bee, communal working group.
Ka whakaaro tētahi kaumātua ki te whakataka ohu hei tope i tōna waerenga, ka huihuitia e ia tōna iwi, ka whakahautia kia topea te waerenga rā (TTT 1/12/1931:82). / When an elder decided to muster a working bee to clear his garden site, he gathered together his people, and directed them to clear that garden plot.
I whakawhirinaki tonu ia ki tana hunga ohu i te mahi, tae atu hoki ki āna tamariki (TTR 1998:223). / He relied on volunteer helpers, including his children.
3. (noun) working bee, working party, volunteer workers, commune, cooperative, collective emterprise.
E rua ngā ohu nāna i mahi i te tuatahi kīhai i oti. Kātahi ka mahia e Te Pōkiha rātou ko ōna hoa tokotoru. Tekau mā iwa ngā rā i mahia ai ka oti (TWMNT 11/1/1876:1). / Two working parties were originally employed to do the work, but they didn't finish it. Then it was done by Te Pōkiha and his three assistants, completing it in nineteen days.
