KEY POINTS:
Ruatoki is still bearing the scars of Monday's raids.
Yesterday, members of the remote Bay of Plenty community met to discuss the events of the previous morning, when armed police stormed homes, set up roadblocks and arrested several people suspected of involvement in a guerrilla camp in the valley beyond the township.
Police iwi liaison officers from the region joined a group of 50 locals at a Ruatoki Valley Rd marae for the meeting, which stretched into the evening.
A marae committee member, who did not want to be named, said locals wanted to discuss their upset over the invasion of their peaceful community at the base of the Urewera ranges.
"The valley's hurting," she said. "Our family needs healing. A lot of them, even the children, got involved."
Reporters, except two Maori journalists with ties to the area, were excluded from the meeting, but earlier other Ruatoki residents spoke of their anger at the way police conducted the dawn raids.
"There's a lot of talk about care of children, but they didn't give a damn about ours," said a middle-aged man who was taken in for questioning with his son.
The man said the armed offenders squad officers who raided his house ordered all the adults and children out of bed and into one room, scaring the children and not allowing the adults to get them food or other necessities.
It is understood a semi-automatic weapon was seized at the property, but other locals said "everyone" in Ruatoki had guns.
"We own firearms up here and some can't afford to get a licence," Te Kanapu Tamaki said. "We just use them for hunting purposes."
Mr Tamaki, a professional possum hunter who works in the ranges, dismissed allegations of a paramilitary camp operating in the Ruatoki valley and of napalm being detonated.
"It's ****** bull****," he said. "It's only the hangi stones blowing up."
Apa Apanui said police were over-reacting and imagining camps where locals went for holidays with their children to be something sinister.
Another woman said locals respected the environment and the suggestion they would destroy it with napalm was "way below the belt".
Hunters driving out of the valley were also incredulous at the idea.
"We don't see anybody up there that's out of place," said a Whakatane hunter, who goes into the valley several times a week.
The police presence yesterday was reduced, with only a small convoy of vehicles filing into the township in the afternoon.
