Stories of unease

Setting down family histories of Aotearoa's colonisation is a small but significant step in changing the conversation, argues Richard Shaw.

- PAUL DIAMOND

Richard Shaw's 2021 memoir The Forgotten Coast uncovered the story of his Irish great grandfather, Andrew Gilhooly, who arrived in Aotearoa in 1875. In 1881, Gilhooly, a member of the Armed Constabulary, was among the troops at the invasion of Parihaka, the Māori village in south Taranaki.

Later, Andrew and his wife Kate bought three farms on land confiscated from Māori. As Shaw writes, "What was a beginning for them was an ending for others."

Following the publication of The Forgotten Coast and an essay on the Conversation website, Shaw, a politics professor at Massey, received sustained feedback - from detractors, but also many people who had been similarly disturbed by aspects of their families' histories in Aotearoa. These "small stories of colonisation" from across the country make up The Unsettled.