Funeral and Death Ritual for the Modern World
Today I attended a full day conference at Natural Endings in Todmorden, who have created the most beautiful ceremony space in what used to be a Royal Mail sorting office. The event brought together celebrants, death doulas, artists, and funeral directors all passionate about finding progressive, participatory and transformative ways to do death ritual and ceremony.
Cyanotype shroud within the Luddenden Shroud and cradle, in front of our collective installation
The keynote speech was by the extraordinary Alexandra Derwen who I love and admire deeply and whose work has inspired my own in countless ways. There were breakout sessions with Dead Good Legacies, Ellie Harrison of the Grief Series and Polite Rebellion, Jenny Gaskell and Rosalie Kuyvenhoven of Rituals Today. We could only attend one - it was so hard to choose! I went the Rosalie’s workshop on Somatic Funerals where she skilfully invited us all to gain experiential understanding of how the body, movement, the senses and touch can support grief and make way for healing within a funeral ceremony setting.
During the day we had the opportunity to write a love letter to our work. We collected our letters together in a collective installation shaped like a giant portal. It became a great, round, abundant altar to love and death work. I felt it beautifully symbolised the creativity and togetherness of our collective community which was so palpable in the room all day.
I was honoured to be invited to have the Luddenden Shroud at the event. I had some amazing feedback from people, it’s earthiness was much admired, which felt great! What a brilliant opportunity for me to be able to show my work to so many people who are on this same rather unique wavelength. Cyanotype shrouds made by my fellow shroud maker Lena Sass of Shrouds and Ashes also hung in the space bringing an ethereal and otherworldly quality which I loved. For the workshop with Rosalie, one of Lena’s shrouds was used within the Luddenden Shroud as a focal point for a somatic funeral exercise. They looked good together!
In the afternoon we were treated to a sparkling and delicious “in conversation” session between Alexandra Derwen and Isabel Russo, which was followed by a joyous celebration and honouring of Sue Gill, one of the original founders of Welfare State Circus, who went on to found Dead Good Guides, train countless celebrants and lead extraordinary ceremonies, a true pioneer in this field and a huge influence on so many. I was grinning from ear to ear by this point! To be in company such as this, co-creating, celebrating, dancing - pure delight flowed in abundance around the room, weaving through and around us all. An incredibly special day.
