This weekend sees the launch of Deathfest, Brisbane’s week long microfestival which explores, challenges, and celebrates our understanding of death, dying, and bereavement.
I sat down for a special panel discussion with three guests to discuss grief, death, and end-of-life care in modern-day Queensland.
Joining me were Fiona Hawthorne, general manager at Hummingbird House, Queensland’s first children’s hospice; Ian Mellor, who manages body bequests for Queensland University of Technology; and Dr Sarah Winch, healthcare ethicist at the University of Queensland and author of Best Death Possible.
We talked about green burials, rituals of death in the 21st century, and the largely hidden processes, procedures, and institutions which deal with death in our society.
In an age when literacy has come to mean so many things – always with a sense of empowering people to read or make sense of some new terrain, topic, or experience – what would it mean for us to become truly “death literate”?
Our discussion will be online soon.
For more on healthcare and wellbeing work during my 2016 Queensland residency, read “On Health and Wellbeing” and “Giant Robots Need Therapy Too“.
matt finch / mechanical dolphin 