{"id":374,"date":"2002-10-20T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2002-10-20T10:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/?p=374"},"modified":"2018-03-20T07:13:56","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T07:13:56","slug":"tribute-to-bomb-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/tribute-to-bomb-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribute to bomb victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Only two years ago, Robyn Webster and her daughter Kristie made an excited phone call to their longtime family friend, Nikki Webster, to congratulate her on a stunning performance at the Olympic opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

But last week, the message on Nikki Webster’s phone was the worst possible: Robyn and Kristie had been in Bali when the bomb blast occurred. Robyn, 45, of Marrickville, died in the explosion and Kristie was badly burnt.<\/p>\n

Today, at the Australians Together tribute in The Domain, Webster sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow<\/em> to honour the family she has known since birth, and to acknowledge their terrible suffering since last weekend.<\/p>\n

“It will definitely be emotional, but I’m doing it for them,” Webster said before the event yesterday. “I’m doing it to tell them how much I love them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We all need to try and help the families who have lost people, because they just don’t know what to do. I mean, some of the bodies haven’t even been found.<\/p>\n

“It’s so terrible.”<\/p>\n

Nikki Webster was not related to the Webster family holidaying in Bali, but they have been close family friends since she was born.<\/p>\n

She attended preschool with Kristie and the two Webster families have often shared birthday celebrations, family barbecues and other events.<\/p>\n

“They were just the nicest people, it was a great family,” said Nikki Webster.<\/p>\n

After desperately waiting for updates from Bali last week, the 15-year-old singer now realises her mum’s longtime friend, Robyn Webster, is dead.<\/p>\n

Her teenage friend, Kristie, is back in Australia with severe burns to parts of her body.<\/p>\n

“Playing the song [at the ceremony] is a way of trying to repay something, some of that pain,” said Nikki Webster.<\/p>\n

It’s unlikely she will be the only performer at the Australians Together tribute who has been directly affected by the Bali tragedy.<\/p>\n

So many Australians have been shocked and saddened by the sudden loss of people they knew.<\/p>\n

The non-religious ceremony at The Domain today was organised to unite Australians in mourning. Many of the tributes were musical, featuring leading artists including Kasey Chambers, John Farnham and Iva Davies.<\/p>\n

Farnham performed Amazing Grace<\/em>, while Chambers sang Million Tears<\/em>. Actor Bryan Brown recited Dorothea Mackellar’s poem My Country<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Australians Together ceremony was hosted by the ABC’s Geraldine Doogue. It was screened live on the ABC and SBS.<\/p>\n

“We believe that today’s event can go someway to show strength and support for the victims and their families,” said John Farnham.<\/p>\n

The national day of mourning for Bali victims will continue into the evening, with a fundraising telethon and tribute, screening on Channel 7 from 6.30pm.<\/p>\n

High-profile stars including Russell Crowe and Kylie Minogue have contributed messages of condolence, alongside messages from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sir Bob Geldof.<\/p>\n

“As an Australian and as a world citizen, I’m devastated by the recent events in Bali,” said Minogue. “My thoughts and my love are with the victims and their families at this time.”<\/p>\n

Geldof said the people of Ireland and England were sharing in the pain of Australians.<\/p>\n

“I would like to convey an understanding that the rest of the world will do whatever it can to take Australia through its moment of sorrow, ” he said.<\/p>\n

Source: SMH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only two years ago, Robyn Webster and her daughter Kristie made an excited phone call to their longtime family friend, Nikki Webster, to congratulate her on a stunning performance at the Olympic opening ceremony. But last week, the message on Nikki Webster’s phone was the worst possible: Robyn and Kristie had been in Bali when … Continue reading<\/a>Tribute to bomb victims<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1797,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/1797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}