A group of six Māori are providing support to protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The group, from different parts of Aotearoa, have been at Oceti Sakowin camp since Sunday and have been helping those who were injured in a confrontation with armed authorities shortly before their arrival.
Marcus Lloyd, who runs an IT company, First Tribe Ltd in Gisborne, says police are disputing the severe injuries sustained by 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky, who claims a concussion grenade was thrown at her and exploded.
"The police are saying that she was holding a homemade explosive [made] by the water protectors, which went off, which is not the case. The case was that a concussion grenade landed on her, in her arms and blew up. And that's what caused it," said Lloyd
"The doctors have the fragments which they took out of her arm. What I last heard was that they were hoping they could try to reconnect it. There was a lot of damage in there, there's a lot of tissue loss so they're working on her pretty heavily. They're gonna do their best to try and save it.”
Mānia Clarke will bring more on this story on Te Kāea tonight at 5.30pm