Cemetery service helps people who visited daily to repair destruction of lone offender
Families may finally find closure after the ruthless destruction of infant graves at Papakura Cemetery. A service was held yesterday at the cemetery by the graves of about 30 to 40 infants that were desecrated this month by what police believe was a lone vandal.
Council cemeteries manager Catherine Moore said the service would help families to recover from the incident.
“It’s about some healing and some closure and feeling like they can put this event to rest,” she said.
People had been visiting the site daily to help restore the graves and clean up the site. Flowers had also been donated by members of the public for families to place on the graves of their loved ones.
Ms Moore said the publication of CCTV footage of the assailant had reassured families that the incident hadn’t been caused by the council or a group of teenagers.
“It was quite unusual in terms of vandalism. People expect things will be damaged and thrown around a bit but to have the piles of decorations was quite unusual and I think that was hard for all of us to understand what had happened,” she said.
“Unless we manage to track down who this person is, I don’t know if we will ever fully understand what their motivation was. For now it’s just a waiting game.”
More than 100 family and community members attended the service, which began with a blessing over the damaged graves followed by speeches from church ministers, Auckland Mayor Len Brown and National MP Judith Collins.
Vanessa Olsson, who has a sister buried there, said afterwards that the
After the site was cleaned up there was this feeling of love here. And it also brought a lot of families back here that haven’t been here in a
long time. Vanessa Olsson, sister of buried infant
service was “very beautiful”.
“After the site was cleaned up there was this feeling of love here. And it also brought a lot of families back here that haven’t been here in a long time,” she said.
Rayella Te Ringa, from a family with an infant’s grave at the cemetery, said the service had helped families to feel “a little more at ease” with what had happened.
“The family are feeling a little bit more at peace now. Still, it won’t stop [the assailant] from coming back though will it,” she said.
Mr Brown called the ceremony “very, very local and very Papakura”.
“There has been a focus on Maori protocol which is appropriate because there are a lot of Maori families here, but it is very family.
‘‘I’ve talked to a lot of people this morning,’’ he said.
‘‘I think for a start the initial response would have been one of outrage and vengeance, but I think working together has helped them to find peace around that,” he said.
The matter is still under investigation by the police. No arrests have been made.