‘My heart breaks into a million pieces’: A community remembers Kumanjayi Little Baby

Warning: This story contains the name and images of an Indigenous person who has died.

The Warlpiri word Jintangka was the theme of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s funeral held in central Australia on Saturday, as family and friends mourned the young girl and called on the nation to come together following her alleged murder earlier this year.

Jintangka means “together as one”, and Alice Springs locals from all walks of life, dressed in pink, descended on the Desert Life Church to mourn the five-year-old girl, who was allegedly abducted and murdered by Jefferson Lewis in April.

Lewis is alleged to have taken her from a home in Old Timers Camp, sparkling an extensive search by hundreds of community members, emergency services, police and specialist trackers until her body was found on the banks of the Todd River days later.

Her death sparked a national outcry and broke the hearts of millions of Australians. About 400 mourners gathered at the outdoor church service on Saturday morning to walk with the hearse as it travelled down to the chapel, and later, to the bush graveyard where she was buried.

Those paying their respects included nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, bikies, state emergency service volunteers and the mayor of Alice Springs.

Mourners were dressed in all shades of pink – Kumanjayi Little Baby’s favourite colour – and pictures of the young girl with angel wings and holding up a peace sign adorned the front page of a ceremonial booklet handed out to attendees.

Elder and family member Robin Granites welcomed Alice Springs locals and visitors alike to the girl’s funeral, and thanked the mourners for wearing pink.

“The pink reminds us of the clothes that [Little Baby] used to wear,” he said.

“You see the pink in the sunset, and even in the early morning – that will remind us [of her].”

He later went on to deliver the eulogy for his granddaughter in a mix of Warlpiri and English, and said his family would be opening their arms to anyone who wanted to mourn with them.

“Today is a very sad day,” he said. “We are all here as one.”

He said he was grateful for the Alice Springs community for coming out and helping to search for the young girl, and for everyone who donated to the funeral celebrations.

Pastor Rejieli Paulo-Smith, speaking on behalf of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s mother Jacinta, said she wished to emphasise who her little girl was, rather than how her life came to an end.

“She was precious. She was a gift. She was everyone’s beautiful baby girl … as a mother, my heart breaks into a million pieces. I miss her,” the statement read.

“Kumanjayi wasn’t simply a little girl who was known by the community; she was Mum’s baby too. She was the little girl whose presence filled their home, and whose absence has left an enormous space. Mum remembers the things that made Kumanjayi uniquely herself. She loved playing games on Mum’s phone.

“She learned to play Minecraft because she watched her big brother Ramsiah playing Minecraft too. She loved watching Masha and the Bear and Bluey, and when she was very little, she would smile when she watched Coco Melon.

“She loved cuddling puppies. She loved the colour pink, which many of you are wearing today, and we say thank you. She loved the colours of the rainbow. She loved music. She loved going to kindy, and Mum called her what she was – her little princess.”

Paulo-Smith said Jacinta’s faith had helped her deal with the pain from her daughter’s death, and she acknowledged the girl had “left an imprint on the hearts of many people who had never met her”.

Another family member showed a painting he had completed before the service, featuring a tree of life and a shield which he said emphasised the need for the community to come together.

Rain began to fall as a choir sang a Christian hymn in Warlpiri as part of the service.

Mourners also included Northern Territory politician and aunty Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who offered Kumanjayi Little Baby an emotional address in the federal parliament shortly after her death.

“I don’t want to be here right now, to have to stand in this chamber to deliver a condolence speech for a little girl in my family,” she said at the time.

“My niece’s life was taken senselessly ... and the hardest truth of all is that for many in my hometown, none of this came as a surprise.”

Nampijinpa Price called for an inquiry about the conditions in town camps, although the call was not seconded by opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Julian Leeser.

At the service, both Kumanjayi Little Baby’s family and priests, pastors and representatives from many different faiths across the Alice Springs community again echoed their calls for unity, saying photos of her flashing the peace sign should be a message going forward.

“She made such a simple gesture, yet it spoke so loudly and speaks loudly now, of peace, of innocence, of a spirit that touched so many hearts in such a short time,” Paulo-Smith said.

“Mum says that Kumanjayi Little Baby will be remembered as a peacemaker for her people. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God, peace to her people.”

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