According to the Tontemboan language dictionary which is quoted by Prof G.A. Wilken in the year 1912 the meaning of Walak is:
Line of descendants
Group of inhabitants
Part of the inhabitants
Dwelling place of the line of descendants.
So Walak carries two meanings i.e. group of inhabitants of one line of descendants and dwelling place of a group of inhabitants of one line of descendants. Kepala Walak (Walak head) means leader of the community of inhabitants of one line of descendants.
A Walian is a Spiritual Leader. The title Walian is one of two categories of Minahasa leaders. Walian contains the word of origin "Wali" which means accompanying the same road and giving protection. This category arranges the original Minahasa religious ceremonies and therefore is called the Preachers category. They are specialized in interpreting the signs of nature and objects in the sky, count the positions of the moon and sun relative to the mountains, observe the appearance of certain stars like "Kateluan" (zodiac), "Tetepi" (meteors) and so on to define the times for planting. Memorizing of the sequence of genealogy for tens of generations., memorize the stories of the Minahasa ancesters. Specialized in making home articles like cloth weaving, braiding tikar (plaited mats), baskets, wooden spoons, water dippers.
The word Wanua in the Old Malay language (Proto Melayu), means dwelling domain. Perhaps because a few thousand years ago the ethnic Malay were already spread over the whole of Middle Asia up to the Pacific islands. After experiencing a sufficiently long historical development, the meaning of the word Wanua also developed. Earlier the word Wanua had the meaning of dwelling domain, then it developed to mean village, negeri (country) even meaning nation. At the same time, in the Minahasa, the word Wanua had the meaning of country or village.