It has been an emotional day for a number of Ruātoki families who were raided by police on the early morning of October 15 2007.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has personally apologised to some of those families for the mistakes police made during the Tūhoe raids.
According to Ngāi Tūhoe descendant, Kathleen Taipeti, “It still hurts, we hardly talk about because we always break down when we talk about it.”
In 2007 Kathleen's house was one of the homes raided by police during Operation 8. She was taken and held in Kawerau, while her children were held at home for the entire day. Her crime was that she knew Tame Iti at the time. Today police returned to her home to apologise.
There is a huge road ahead for the police to restore the trust within Ruātoki Valley.
Today was a personal apology by the NZ Police Commissioner to the families that were raided in Ruātoki over Operation 8 however the apology to the community is yet to happen.