This Is Not the Time for Hate

 

There are moments when the world should fall silent.

Not because there is nothing to say, but because what has happened is so devastating, so deeply wrong, that the usual noise of politics, blame, opinions, and outrage feels almost obscene.

The death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby is one of those moments.

A little girl.

Five years old.

At five, a child should be learning, laughing, playing, asking questions, making mess, being cheeky, being cuddled, being loved.

At five, the world should still feel safe.

Instead, a family is grieving something no family should ever have to survive.

A community is hurting.

And a little girl who deserved a whole lifetime has become a headline.

As a grandmother, I cannot sit with that lightly. I cannot read her name and move on. Because every child is somebody’s baby. Somebody held her. Somebody loved her. Somebody imagined her growing up.

There should have been birthdays.
There should have been school photos.
There should have been scraped knees, silly giggles, bedtime stories, and years of becoming whoever she was meant to be.

Instead, there is grief.

And while that grief is still raw, while her family and community are still trying to breathe through the unimaginable, I see the ugliness begin.

The blame.
The racism.
The political point scoring.
The people using a little girl’s death to push their own agenda.

And I need to say this clearly:

This is not the time for hate.

This is not the time to blame entire communities.
This is not the time to make generalisations based on race.
This is not the time to turn pain into division.

The only person responsible is the person who did it.

Not a race.
Not a culture.
Not a whole community.

One person.

If we truly care about children, then our response must be better than hatred. It must be compassion. It must be support. It must be a willingness to listen, to learn, and to hold space for grief without trying to own it.

Because this little girl was not a political argument.

She was not a headline.

She was a child.

A precious little girl who deserved safety, protection, love, and a future.

Right now, her family does not need strangers turning her death into a battleground. They need compassion. They need dignity. They need people to remember that behind every news story are real human beings whose lives have been shattered.

Pain does not heal through hate.

Communities do not heal through blame.

Children are not protected by racism, fear, or division.

They are protected when adults choose humanity. When we stop shouting long enough to listen. When we refuse to let grief be twisted into something cruel.

So let this be a moment where we do not harden.

Let this be a moment where we love harder.

Where we stand beside a grieving family and community and say:

We are sorry.
We see your pain.
We will not use your grief for our own anger.
We will not let hate speak louder than compassion.

Kumanjayi Little Baby deserved more.

She deserved a lifetime.

And the very least we can do now is honour her with the humanity she deserved while she was here.

Not hate.

Not blame.

Not division.

Love. Compassion. Understanding.

For her.

For her family.

For her community.

And for every child still watching what kind of adults we choose to be.