Kumanjayi Little Baby memorial: Hundreds gather in pink tribute
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this story contains the image and name of a deceased Indigenous person.
Touching scenes have emerged across the nation as Australia united to remember the life of Kumanjayi Little Baby.
A sea of pink decorated the Northern Territory town as hundreds gathered to remember the five-year-old at a memorial service on Thursday night.
Kumanjayi Little Baby disappeared from her home in Old Timers town camp on Anzac Day, sparking a desperate search.
Her body was discovered just days later.
Jefferson Lewis, who had been staying in the camp around the time of her disappearance, was arrested and charged with her murder.
He remains in custody on remand.
On Thursday, mourners dressed in pink to remember the bubbly five-year-old, gathering in capital cities all over the country for candlelit ceremonies.
In Darwin, hundreds gathered outside Parliament House in Darwin, lighting candles on the green and observing a minute’s silence.
Similar scenes were observed at Anzac Oval in Alice Springs, with the ABC reporting singers were performing while children ran around enjoying themselves.
Vigil organiser Chay Brown told the broadcaster: “We have seen the very best of our community, we have seen a strength that we all know has always resided here.”
“So we are here this evening to reinvigorate that strength.”
Lean Liddle – the Northern Territory Police’s executive director of cultural reform – read out a letter from Kumanjayi’s mother.
“I want you all to know that my heart is broken into a million pieces, and I want you to know that I am having trouble knowing how I can repair it and how I can live without my little baby,” it read, per ABC reports.
She said she did not want her death to be politicised or used by politicians “that do not honour and respect her”.
“I ask that everyone let me, Ramsiah (Kumanjayi Little Baby’s brother), our family and the nation grieve without any judgment,” she continued.
