I like and support the idea that a privileged group of society should do what it can to help a less privileged group, especially if they got their status as a result of injustice.
I hate and despise utterly the idea that the descendants of the perpetrators should feel responsibility and guilt for actions other than their own.
The white people against compensation for Maori seem to have trouble separating the two ideas, so they get mightily offended - but they ARE separate, people.
Sure, there are some people out there trying to say that you should feel shame for what someone else did. It's a viewpoint I find abhorrent as it's essentially identical to the Christian concept of original sin - a misdeed you're guilty of simply for being born. However, I don't think it's a view that the majority of pro-compensation people are advocating, regardless of what the media knows will make a good story, and I'm certainly not seeing it from BOYD and cyclonic in this thread.
You don't need to feel like you personally stole their lands in order to give a helping hand to someone in a weaker position than yourself. You just need to be a decent human being who feels a little compassion for his fellow man. The sort of help I support underprivileged Maori getting I'd support anyone getting, past injustices or not. But then, I am a filthy socialist hippy.
Relax.