UPCOMING EVENTS
CHOOSING A HOME FUNERAL - THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER
ABOUT: In this session Zenith will step you through some of the fundamental things to consider when organising a home funeral. Drawn from over 30 years of experience helping people do this, this session is aimed to expand your understanding of possible home funeral options.
Zenith Virago lives in Byron Bay, Australia and is the EO and founding member of the NSW Charity, the Natural Death Care Centre. She is the co author of the book The Intimacy of Death and Dying, and subject of the international independent documentary, Zen & the Art of Dying, and patron of the Good funeral guide, UK. Read more about Zenith.
This information session will take place on 14-May 2024 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Booking are essential for this online event.
COMMUNITY CAPACITY AND DEATH
ABOUT: In this session, Bec and Kaz will discuss community approaches to end of life and after death care. Drawing from rich personal experiences they will talk through some of the deaths they have been a part of and in particular how Kaz’s husband Stan helped an entire community become death literate.
Over her career, Bec has worked in various industries including finance, real estate and the law but in 2011, she found her path into the funeral industry and stayed there until mid-2017 working across the many roles offered in the contemporary funeral industry; including pre planning, administration, mortuary, funeral arranging and directing. Retraining as an End of Life Doula and becoming an independent Funeral Director, she has worked in home based death care and family led funerals ever since. Read more about Bec.
This information session will take place on 12-June 2024 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Bookings are essential via the link below.
WAYS OF BEING WITH A FAMILY WHEN A PERSON IS DYING
ABOUT: In this talk Annie will share her own experiences and what to avoid. Having learned the hard way what to avoid. How to take long distance separation, age, technology and disabilities into consideration.
We will all have valuable experiences to share and this is a terrific opportunity to do this.
Annie Whitlocke has been a death doula for 14 years, pet death doula, trainer for death doulas and pet death doulas. She is Team leader for Social Health Australia, Buddhist chaplain and Pastoral Carer for Monash Health. Read more about Annie.
This information session will take place on 25-July 2024 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Booking will open for this event closer to the session date & time.
DYING TO KNOW DAY EVENT
ABOUT: Living Wakes are becoming more popular with Australians as the years go by and people start to rethink funerals, celebrations, memorials and all the nice things people say when someone dies. In this special Dying to Know Day event, Annie Whitlocke and Edwin Quilliam will share their personal stories, reflections and experiences with living wakes and share when they meant and how they worked.
Annie Whitlocke, AHFA Co-Opt Member, has been a death doula for 14 years, pet death doula, trainer for death doulas and pet death doulas. She is Team leader for Social Health Australia, Buddhist chaplain and Pastoral Carer for Monash Health. Read more about Annie.
Edwin was born and raised on a farm and went on to own and manage his own patch of dirt in NW Tassie. Moving to Hobart to study counselling lead to him ‘falling into’ the funeral industry. He has learned most of the roles involved over the past18 years and loves them all. His great passion now is funeral celebrancy work. Having been involved in a living funeral at his work and hearing about them from various sources he hatched a plan to spring one of his own on his family and friends.
This information session will take place on 8-August 2024 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Booking will open for this event closer to the session date & time.
AHFA August EVENT
ABOUT: The UK and the USA have led the way on home funerals for decades now and as we start to build these practices and communities in Australia, it can help to know where they have come from in modern times and their history. There are lessons with what works and what does not and good people making a real difference in communities around the world. Claire and Lee will offer honest, candid conversations about home funerals and the ways in which we can build community knowledge and practice in Australia.
Lee Webster is an internationally recognized public speaker and writer on funeral reform, including home funerals and green burial. She has served as President of the Green Burial Council and the National Home Funeral Alliance, and as a co-founder of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and Conservation Burial Alliance. She has been the director of New Hampshire Funeral Resources & Education for over 15 years. She is the author of several home funeral and green burial articles and books, including The After-Death Care Educator Handbook, Changing Landscapes: Exploring the growth of ethical, compassionate and environmentally sustainable green funeral service, and contributions to The Future of the Corpse: Our Changing Ecologies of Death and Disposition.
Claire Turnham, a Non-Executive AHFA Committee member, is a mother of 4 and the UK/NZ based Founder of Only with Love. As a pioneer of the home funeral movement, she is passionate about sharing her skills, knowledge and experience to help others. Claire is recognised internationally as a leading Home Funeral Practitioner, Educator, Celebrant and Advisor. Read more about Claire.
This information session will take place on during 29-August 2024 from 8pm to 9.30pm.
Booking will open for this event closer to the session date & time.
Decolonising Deathcare through home funerals.
ABOUT: Coming soon.
Hini (they/them) grew up in a religious home in Aotearoa where Tangihanga (home funerals) were a cultural norm. They identify as Takātapui (Māori term for Queer) and seek to decolonise deathcare by making un-safe spaces feel safe for the many communities they represent - Indigenous and people of colour, Queer, Trans and neurodivergent. They find pleasure in healing through truth-telling and have found their niche as a funeral celebrant with The Last Hurrah funerals. To build and promote community they co-founded the Queer as Death Collective who host monthly LGBTIQA+ Death Cafes and creative death literacy events.
Hini carries a highly creative attitude backed with a degree in Fashion design. Their stories have been shared on 3CR & RRR radio, SBS and more recently have been published in Archer Magazine’s issue #19 Read more about Hini.
This information session will take place on during 10 September 2024 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Booking will open for this event closer to the session date & time.
PREVIOUS EVENTS
REFLECTIONS OF MY QUEER DEATH/BIRTH RITUAL
ABOUT: In this session, will share photos and personal experiences of attempting to metaphorically dead while she reflects on the birth/death ritual she hosted - a queer death experiment.
Drawing on her experiences of working as a Personal Care Attendant and Mortician's assistant, she explores switching roles with friends. Conversations around consent, boundaries, and desires play an intrinsic role in the experiment.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
A DOULA'S SUPPORT IN DYING
ABOUT: At this event, facilitate by Tracey Rusden, we explored the role of an End of Life Doula, sometimes referred to as EOLD.
What does a doula do? At a glance, you might work with an EOLD if;
You are advancing in age or have a life-limiting or terminal diagnosis and want to get your 'affairs' in order.
You want to have important discussions and conversations about end of life.
You would like to know your options, to be prepared and organised.
You want your wishes and preferences documented and would like support to get it sorted.
You’re an independent thinker and have some ideas about what you want and don’t want.
You want personalised support for you and your people, you are interested in support with advocacy.
You want to minimise any challenges for your people.
You like an open and honest approach.
You want to remain in your own home.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
CREATING RITUALS OF DRESS AND DEATH
ABOUT : Dr. Pia Interlandi is a designer who addresses death through dress; dress as an act, as a doing, and as a becoming (poiesis). Harnessing a toolkit of skills that combine tacit and explicit knowledge bases, Pia intermeshes scholarly and professional practice, interlacing personal reflection, community engagement, and the rigor(mortis) of academia.
Through her practice, Garments for the Grave, Pia designs rituals for facilitating dressing and addressing the dead body. She co-designs garments with the terminally ill and dresses them with family for their funerals. As an academic, her teaching and research explore the materials and materiality of death, disposal, decomposition and dispersion.
A founding member of the Order of the Good Death, Natural Death Advocacy Network, Australian Death Studies Society, and the Australian Home Funeral Alliance, Pia has spent her entire adult life advocating for creativity at the end.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
WHAT DO I SAY
ABOUT : Do you know what to say when someone is dying, or to someone recently bereaved? AHFA committee member Annie Whitlocke has years of experience she to share on this topic.
Annie has completed Death Doula Australia training 1 and advanced, Death Doula Australia training Death of a Baby, Deathwalker 1 and advanced, and Midwifing Death Amicus. She works as a Clinical Pastoral Education (Monash Hospital) and sits on the advisory committee for Secular Spiritual Care Network.
Annie also serves as a part of the advisory committee for Victoria Governments Palliative Care Clinical Insight committee, as an on-call Buddhist chaplain at all major hospitals and as a Palliative Liaison coordinator Buddhist Council Victoria.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
BODY DISPOSAL OPTIONS
ABOUT : Bec Lyons is the President of the Natural Death Advocacy Network and the Australian Home Funeral Alliance. She is a Celebrant, Tedx speaker, end of life doula and independent funeral director. She is a Churchill Fellow and the author of 'A Heartfelt Undertaking' and has travelled the world looking at different body disposal options. During this event, she presented an overview of her research and findings.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
AFTER DEATH BODY CARE IN THE HOME.
ABOUT : After death body care in the home. People talk about home funeral but what does it take to care for the dead? AHFA committee member, Hallie Halloran is of Ngemba - First Nations, Irish & Belgian bloodlines. I have always had a personal passion & interest in human relating, nature, lore, life & death. I was born with a strong yet soft humanitarian heart that likes to listen, observe & feel more than talk. She is the owner of Paperbark deathcare and she offers an accessible, affordable & eco-conscious family led service offering the knowledge, advocacy & guidance, so that they may do as much or as little themselves.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
ARRANGING A HOME FUNERAL.
ABOUT : AHFA committee members Alex and Hini delve into how to arrange a home funeral. What does it involve and where do you start?
Alex Antunes (she/her) is a Naarm based aged care worker and holistic funeral assistant. She is the current treasurer of Natural Death Advocacy Network and a founder of Queer As Death Collective which facilitate monthly Death Cafes for LGBTQIA+ people.
Hini (they/them) hails from New Zealand, they're an indigenous Maori, queer non-binary person who has lived in Australia since 2006. They're a hospitality professional and creative event producer who's adding their weight to the death positive/ literacy movement.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
WHAT IS A HOME FUNERAL?
ABOUT : Claire Turnham and Bec Lyons share what a home funeral is and how it all works.
Claire Turnham MBE is a mother of 4 and the UK/NZ based Founder of Only with Love. As a pioneer of the home funeral movement, she is passionate about sharing her skills, knowledge and experience to help others. Claire is recognised internationally as a leading Home Funeral Practitioner, Educator, Celebrant and Advisor.
Bec Lyons is the President of the Natural Death Advocacy Network and the Australian Home Funeral Alliance. She is a Celebrant, Tedx speaker, end of life doula and independent funeral director. She is a Churchill Fellow and the author of 'A Heartfelt Undertaking'.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
CEREMONY REALLY MATTERS
About: AHFA Committee member Zenith Virago will be sharing her decades of wisdom about creating meaningful ceremony. Zenith lives in Byron Bay, Australia and is the EO and founding member of the NSW Charity, the Natural Death Care Centre. She is the co author of the book The Intimacy of Death and Dying, and subject of the international independent documentary, Zen & the Art of Dying, and patron of the Good funeral guide, UK. With a legal and community background and work history, she is a seen as a community resource, assisting people to know and reclaim their legal rights, and co-create their own social rites of passage. She has been working towards more holistic cultural change in approaches to better and continual end of life and after death care for well over 25 years.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
BUILDING GRIEF LITERACY: THEORY, PRACTICE & PARTNERSHIPS
ABOUT: Jo has been a practicing SW for over 20 years. She became passionate about social work role in end of life care and opportunities for therapeutic intervention in a busy clinical environment which lead her to her PhD research at University of Wollongong (UOW) exploring hospital and community partnerships in caring towards end of life. Currently Jo works as the SESLHD Bereavement Coordinator which encompasses staff and community capacity building in all things death, dying and bereavement as well as coordinating and providing clinical bereavement care. Alongside this she teaches in the Healthcare and SW subject at UOW.
In this session Jo unpacked the myths of griefs and include an overview of current bereavement theory. We will also explore what’s happening across the community to increase our grief literacy and how hospitals and funeral organisations can partner to provide wrap around bereavement care to clients and families.
This event was recorded, and can be viewed via our Information Sessions
For more information about any of these events or to suggest a topic, please email us at hello@ahfa.org.au.
