A tino rangatiratanga flag flies at tapū Lake Rotokākahi near Rotorua. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
Seven people were arrested for trespass after refusing to leave the Tarawera Sewerage worksite during a sewerage pipeline protest at Lake Rotokākahi, police say.
Police said about 80 officers were deployed across two shifts on Monday night, when council road blocks were in place to allow contractors to establish the worksite.
The protesters said Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tūmatawera and supporters were peacefully holding space to oppose the sewer line through a wāhi tapu site.
Rotorua Lakes Council contractors were due to resume work on Monday night to enable the last 1.3km of pipeline in the Tarawera Sewerage Scheme to resume being laid.
Protect Rotokākahi spokesperson Te Whatanui Leka Taumalolo Skipwith said they were attempting to protect what was sacred.
"And what is that? The whenua, which is the environment, and the waters that I'm sure everyone in the country sees as a precious valuable thing ... because we need those things in order for us to survive and to thrive."
He said 100 officers were there, as protesters were singing waiata and were in their whenua.
"Our people weren't even in the injunction area," he told Morning Report.
Bay of Plenty Acting District Commander Lincoln Sycamore said that was not the case, and the land protesters were moved from belonged to the Department of Conservation.
"We really just treated it with kid gloves, balancing the need to establish the work site and the right for people to protest."
He said about 30 officers remained on site on Tuesday morning, and that the total number on Monday was 80 officers.
Sycamore said the atmosphere at the site on Tuesday morning was friendly and cordial between the protest group and police.
"They have a message that they want to send and we want to facilitate that.
"That is our role. We're here to maintain the peace and that's it."
The seven arrested people were given trespass notices and formal warnings, and were released without charge, after refusing to leave the worksite related to a Rotorua Lakes Council project, police said.
Opposition to the project, including from the group that oversees the iwi-owned lake, has forced work to pause several times, Local Democracy Reporting reported.
A court-ordered injunction in November banned interference with construction.
The project would connect hundreds of Tarawera households to the town sewerage system and aimed to reduce lake pollution.
The pipeline's proximity to Lake Rotokākahi saw some mana whenua from Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tūmatawera occupy a portion of the lake, claiming it is a wāhi tapū (sacred site) where many of their tīpuna (ancestors) were killed and buried following the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.
