SYDNEY, May 7 (Reuters) – Mourners on Thursday will gather across Australia to hold vigils for a five-year-old Indigenous girl whose alleged abduction and murder shocked the nation and sparked riots in the Outback town of Alice Springs.
The gatherings come a week after the girl was found dead by authorities following a five-day search involving hundreds of volunteers and police.
The disappearance and death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name by which the victim is known in line with Indigenous custom, dominated national headlines.
The subsequent arrest of a man suspected of abducting and murdering her triggered violent clashes in Alice Springs, with a crowd of 400 Indigenous people gathering to demand “payback,” referring to traditional and mostly physical punishment in Aboriginal societies.
The Alice Springs community has since been conducting “sorry business,” the mourning period and cultural practices that occur after an Indigenous person’s death.
The girl’s family will hold a vigil in the Outback town on Thursday evening and others will be held across the country in remembrance of the girl.
Vigil organisers have asked attendees to bring candles and wear pink – the girl’s favourite colour.
Kumanjayi Little Baby disappeared from her home on the outskirts of Alice Springs on the evening of April 25.
Hundreds of people were involved in a search effort to locate her, scouring dense bushland around the town, a popular tourist destination in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Police on Sunday charged Jefferson Lewis, 47, with her murder and two other offences, which cannot be publicly disclosed for legal reasons.
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
