Shedding: A Ritual of Grief and Eros with Alessandra Massi
Join us for a group ritual to heal, to open our hearts, and to free up energy so we can respond in wise and loving ways. Our bodies are instruments of energy and love. Many of us are experiencing trauma, outrage, fear, grief, despair, numbness… all of these are natural human responses to our crises. This ritual is an invitation to release what is eating at our soul.
Join us for a group ritual to heal, to open our hearts, and to free up energy so we can respond in wise and loving ways. Our bodies are instruments of energy and love. Many of us are experiencing trauma, outrage, fear, grief, despair, numbness… all of these are natural human responses to our crises. This ritual is an invitation to release what is eating at our soul.
Breathe, move, feel, and vocalize to make space for this energy so we can choose to direct it in powerful loving ways. Both eros and grief open the flow of energy in our hearts and entire beings.
If you want to control a society, teach them to be ashamed of who they are and what they deeply desire. They will lose a sense of what's possible. Many people have lived and died in a restricted sense of what is possible and have passed that along through generations. This ritual invites you to tremble open to see a future beyond these restrictions, a future we can be proud of together.
Camera Obscura with Alessandra Massi
In this workshop we will create a photographic portrait which reflects our impermanence and connection to nature. We will become curious of what makes us come alive in connection to death.
Camera Obscura
Latin; literally translates to ‘dark chamber.’
An embodied reflection of our impermanence and moving into death consciousness.
Composing a photographic portrait of excruciating beauty and honesty.
Allowing yourself to be known and seen in the truth of who you are, both in life and in death.
Death is a part of this impermanent life yet we rarely discuss it or recognize that it is happening at every single moment.
In this exploration we look at how fear of death disconnects us from nature.
Through compassionate and tender guidance, we reflect on the gifts of acceptance, acknowledging death and dying as part of the natural cycle, intrinsically connected to life and living.
This is the true meaning of living erotically, becoming curious of what makes you come alive.
Voluntary Assisted Dying and Doula Care with Kim Somerville and Sarah Barry
This workshop offers information and discussion on the introduction of Voluntary Assisted Dying within N.S.W. It covers who is eligible and what is involved within the process. It also gives advice about what one can do legally if one doesn’t fit into the eligibility guidelines.
This workshop offers information and discussion on the introduction of Voluntary Assisted Dying within N.S.W. It covers who is eligible and what is involved within the process.
Drawing on experience of accompanying our clients, we reflect upon how doula support can greatly assist those travelling with their person to be present, supported and carry what they need to from the experience of voluntary assisted dying. Presented by members of Life Rites Doula led end of life and holistic funeral care
The Consolation of Poetry with Luke Fischer
Poetry possesses a unique capacity to reconcile us with death and mourning, to affirm life in the face of death's inevitability, and to offer forms of spiritual solace. Poets often write about death, and funerals (along with weddings) are one of the few public occasions on which poetry is frequently read.
Poetry possesses a unique capacity to reconcile us with death and mourning, to affirm life in the face of death's inevitability, and to offer forms of spiritual solace. Poets often write about death, and funerals (along with weddings) are one of the few public occasions on which poetry is frequently read.
In this workshop, poet and philosopher Luke Fischer will discuss both his own poetry and the work of other poets in connection with the experiences of death and grief. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how they have found consolation in poetry and are welcome to bring poems to share with the group.
Modern Philosophical Approaches to Death and Dying with Dalia Nassar and Peter Banki
Death and dying are multi-faceted and deeply ambivalent experiences. There is not one true way of thinking about and understanding them. Come learn about the diverse and often irreconcilable perspectives of philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida on death and dying.
In this workshop we are going to depart by reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s last unfinished poem: “Come you, you last one”. This will open the space for a discussion of four of the most influential theses on death and dying in twentieth century Western philosophy:
1. Our unconscious, which is to say, the greatest part of our psyche, does not know or believe in death (Freud);
2. Understanding that our death is possible is the condition for any authentic selfhood and historical existence (Heidegger);
3. Our relation to our death is firstly through the other, whose death has a philosophical and ethical priority (Levinas);
4. Our relation to ourselves is a priori posthumous; anticipatory mourning is the fundamental condition for any relation to ourselves and others (Derrida).
Abortion as Self-Discovery with Lauren Taylor
For many people, choosing abortion is an act of self-advocacy. Honouring a pregnancy release asks that we drop into our bodies in order to listen and take action based on our inner wisdom. In this workshop, we will be exploring the complex relationship between abortion, the life-death-life cycle, grief and how it can impact our own journeys of self discovery.
Abortion can be a catalyst for self-growth.
Acting as an initiation into a new phase of the lifecycle, abortion can spark rebirth of the self. This experience invites us to examine the relationships we have with ourselves and others with fresh eyes.
Honouring a pregnancy release asks that we drop into our bodies in order to listen and take action based on our inner wisdom. For many people, choosing abortion is an act of self-advocacy.
In this workshop, we will be exploring the complex relationship between abortion, the life-death-life cycle, grief and how it can impact our own journeys of self discovery. Through peer counselling, we will be sharing our own stories, while also having a broader discussion about how abortion and death can bring us closer to ourselves and those we wish to be in relationship with.
Please join me in creating a space that honours abortion and makes room for holding the polarity of abortion and self-growth together.
Compassionate Communities: a Panel Discussion led by Harpreet Kalsi
Compassionate communities are a core part of public health approaches to palliative care, end of life care and bereavement. The term was coined by Allan Kellehear in the mid-2000s to describe communities which play a much stronger role in the care of people at end of life and their families and carers through illness, dying, death and bereavement.
Bringing local residents, schools, businesses, groups and healthcare services together, Compassionate Communities is a network to promote and support kindness, friendship and a collaborative approach to caring for one another at times of health crisis and personal loss.
10 Years on Where Are We?
Join Harpreet Kalsi-Smith, Board Director of Compassionate Communities Australia, as she facilitates a panel on where we are 10 years on in compassionate community based death and dying in Australia.
We will consider:
What's going well and what needs to be changed?
What are compassionate communities doing? What more can be done?
What are the intersects between compassionate communities and the health system
How can home based palliative care be accessed?
The Death Letter Project with Tina FiveAsh and Danni Petkovic
The Death Letter Project is a ten year undertaking, during which Tina Fiveash invited fifty Australians to write a letter responding to: What is death? What happens when we die? Join Tina FiveAsh PhD, Creator/Photographer of the Death Letter Project, and End-of Life Doula, Danni Petkovic, as they speak about the Death Letter Project and how they confronted their chronic fear of death and share knowledge and insight into what they learned along the way.
In this workshop Tina FiveAsh (Creator/photographer of the Death Letter Project) and, Danni Petkovic (end-of-life doula) come together for the first time to share how they both confronted their chronic fear of death—and transformed their lives in profound ways.
Tina and Danni will share their personal journeys with participants, and then open up the discussion for participants to voluntarily share their own journeys and/or fears about death with the group.
Tina Fiveash is the founder of The Death Letter Project, a ten year undertaking, during which she invited fifty Australians to write a letter responding to: What is death? What happens when we die? The project’s fifty letters, accompanied by photographic portraits of each contributor, provide a glimpse into the diversity of thoughts, beliefs, and experiences surrounding death in contemporary Australian society.
For further information on The Death Letter Project go to: