Distraught locals embrace at the scene after eight children were found stabbed to death at a house in Manoora near Cairns. Photo / AAP
Distraught locals embrace at the scene after eight children were found stabbed to death at a house in Manoora near Cairns. Photo / AAP
The patriarch of a Queensland family grieving after the alleged murder of eight children in Cairns has delivered a heartfelt public appeal for children to be cherished.
Rod Willie faced the media in Cairns for the first time since the mother of seven of the children and aunt to another,Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, 37, was charged with eight counts of murder.
The four boys and four girls, aged between two and 14 years, were found dead in the home at Manoora last Friday.
The unprecedented tragedy had directly affected multiple families, Mr Willie says.
"We are working carefully and respectfully as immediate families, extended families and as a community, through a sensitive and cultural process to ensure our loved ones are respectfully put to rest," he said, according to statement circulated by police on Wednesday.
"Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through a very difficult process."
No date has been set for funeral ceremonies, but Mr Willie said the families would lay the victims to rest in Cairns early in the New Year.
He said those affected by the tragedy had been offered tremendous support from community leaders and organisations, individuals, agencies, and the private and corporate sectors.
"Our priority focus to date has been very much towards supporting our traumatised family members, to meet our cultural protocols and to begin to consider extraordinary funeral arrangements," he said.
Mr Willie urged the wider public to band together during the Christmas period and "hold dear such occasions with family and friends".
Families needed to regularly offer and seek loving support from one another, he said.
"Children are the most vulnerable of our society whose innocent lives deserve the greatest of love and care," he said.
