Alice Springs grieves young girl's death

0:00We're turning to our lead story this afternoon, and there have been rights in Alice Springs overnight. After the arrest of a man wanted over the murder of a little girl, joining us this afternoon from Alice Springs is Katherine Little, the CEO of Snake, the National Voice for Out Children. Katherine, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, and we are so sorry for this terrible loss for your local community. A statement has been released from this little girl's family today, and I just want to share a quote with you saying they sit in the statement, it's time now for sorry business to show respect to our family and to have space for grieving and remembering. Yeah, absolutely, and what's very clear in that is that the family have been expressing their incredible gratitude for what we have seen in the Alice Springs heart and the Alice Springs community and coming out on mass in hundreds to search for a common jail little baby to make sure

1:05she was returned to her family and an incredible acknowledgement of the deep collective grieving that our community is feeling and the incredible raft of emotions that are impacting on every single member of the Alice Springs community and it is them acknowledging that right now what we all need to do is collectively mourn and the only way to do that is to become and to lean into sorry business processes because that's where healing starts. Katherine, you're joining us from Alice Springs this afternoon. We saw those scenes also overnight with hundreds of people taking to the streets. Also, another statement from that family today is they said, and I'm quoting here again, what has happened this week is not our way our children are precious. Of course, we are feeling angry and hurt at what has happened. Where to from now from now for your local community? Look, I think one of the incredible, I guess, it's hard to describe. It's it is genuinely hard to describe, but I think one of the most incredible things that we have witnessed over this period

2:10of time was that understanding that deep humanity, that everybody loves their children and it has been wonderful to see that that is recognised across Alice Springs, that everybody does everything that they can to protect and care for their children. I think also what we're looking at now is how we have a conversation, not right now, right now and that was not the time to point fingers, but we are going to have to have some really tough conversations about what led to this moment in time and how we respond to this moment in time. We know that there needs to be a really good hard look at custodial policies. We know that that's going to need to happen because we have to start asking ourselves really tough questions about how a known violent offender was released from an area 500 kilometres away and turned up in Alice Springs. We have to ask really tough questions about how that happened. We have to ask really tough questions about how I'm doing everything she can to care for her little one was put in a position of overcrowded housing. These are deep policy failures

3:15that will have to be examined, but what the family is really clear on right now and what they're asking everyone to consider is keep the morning process at the top of your thoughts, keep the thoughts for little for Kumman J, little baby at the top of your thoughts and think about how you heal, reach out for support, stay calm and think about baby. What is your advice to the local community there, Catherine right now? Because as you rightly say, it's really hard to put any of this into words at the moment. I think the first thing to say is if you're hurting, that's normal. Everyone's hurting and everyone's having incredible trouble processing how they feel about what has happened. Those people that were involved in the searches, they were absolutely gutted by what they were experiencing. They're going to need counseling. We know that our Aboriginal community control services experts in knowing how to respond to families in crisis. And again, when we have export, we have experienced overnight. Again, Alice Springs does know how to respond to that moment

4:19in time and it starts with the calls for calm. It starts with the services coming together and saying we're going to protect you, we've got you, we're going to keep you strong. And it takes us back to where we started. And that is Alice Springs is an incredible community and it's a community that cares very deeply about each other. And now is the moment to with a physically or metaphorically hold hands and be strong and lean into the moment and allow ourselves to grieve. Catherine, we really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us.