I'm currently researching my ancestors role in colonisation at the moment. There are two places I know of named for my family who farmed confiscated (or wrongfully acquired through poor exchange) land. This is important work for pākehā to do. https://twitter.com/banquotrilogy/status/1264297283006287872

And I think there are legitimate feelings for pākehā to feel when we do this research including shame and guilt.
But there are other feelings that are also difficult because they compound the guilt.

Like pride in our ancestors for what they faced and what they had to leave behind or what they were running from.

I believe many settlers who came here were lied to, or were dreadfully ignorant, of what was happening here before they arrived. They believed the propaganda that there was all this empty land here for them. The land of milk and honey.

This thread isn't about making excuses, it's about how important it is that pākehā do this research, this looking back, to see how we are complicit. But white guilt can only go so far in making change for the future.

Hating our own ancestors can only ostracise us of a sense of identity, and that's risky, for some pākehā that has meant trying to find a new identity within Māori culture, as time goes on I think we might see more of this. And it's not ok.

Instead we need to understand our ancestors their situation, their circumstances and the wider impact of that. We can feel shame and guilt. But we need to allow for more complexity than that. So that we can still be us, and not steal further from Māori.