Blog Posts

Hello, A big shout out and a hearty hello to all of the people who came and visited us today and joined our mailing list as well. We are so grateful for all of the conversations, and congratulations received in relation to this work we are doing. Now you will not have heard from us in a good while now and that is because we have been very busy. I have been working on a Natural Burial Project, finalising the Churchill Fellowship Itinerary so that flights can be booked and most of all we have been helping families with Family Led Funerals. What a humbling and special start to the year we have had, being able to help families keep their loved ones at home after death and plan

Good morning! We are on the countdown for Christmas and I wanted to share with you what has been happening in the last few weeks. Many of the Doulas and people working in this alternate space got together for dinner a few weeks ago to share ideas, developments and talk about future prospects. There are some very exciting things happening, some of which I will share with you into the new year. I had a date at Government house to receive my Churchill Fellowship award and then dashed off to Deloraine to join Ediwn and Mea on her Peace Pod stall and talk death with the good people of Tasmania and beyond. My planning for Churchill is in full swing. I am making the final arrangements of meeting

Hello! I read a lot of books, those about dying and death. Personal accounts, peoples views, medical perspectives, books that are designed to connect us with our own mortality, books that offer a new way of doing dying and death as a community and society (which is often really the re-discovery of old ways). The book that I finished this afternoon had me in tears nearly every time I opened its sacred pages. Tears of joy, sorrow, intense knowing, tears of challenge and elation, relief and disbelief. This book invites you in with a warm hug, it places you in the centre of peoples hearts and you are carried through their journey, privileged to share their thoughts, feelings and actions… all the while it is as if they are

Greetings! We’ve has a marvelous day today at the Natural Death Expo, held in line with Dying to Know Day 2018 and in conjunction with the Tamar Peace Festival. What incredible people we have here in Tasmania. Today we met hospital workers, a mayor, retirees, a man living with a stroke, community leaders, refugees, women of substance and power, men of incredible courage, inventors, entrepreneurs, the socially conscious and community-minded… It was a truly lovely day. There are people right here in Tasmania working to bring about change in the space of dying and death, they are striving for natural burial here where there is none, they are walking the end of life path with the dying and making beautiful things like coffins and shrouds to help families with

I’d like to share with you all an article that was published this morning online. Doing death differently. It’s not a new thing here in Australia, although our choices are still very limited, that may not be the case for too much longer. The whole idea of doing death well, in all its facets, is beginning to become a much more public conversation… we are on the verge of much bigger things. In Australia and indeed worldwide, there are people and places working hard to reconnect their communities with this ancient wisdom of doing death well. Edwin and I are so incredibly lucky and grateful to call some of these people friends, acquaintances and colleges… so pleased to be able to play our small part as we all strive

Good evening! I can scarce believe it has been so long since our last post. It has been a tumultuous few weeks for our family but I want to share with you some of the good stuff. You would have seen last week a whole bunch of Facebook posts (for those of you who follow our page) showing you some of the goings on at the 2018 Compassionate Communities Death Literacy Conference in Sydney. I was lucky enough to attend both days of the conference and the launch of their most recent research. What is abundantly clear is that the majority of us have had death experiences… we have experienced the death of someone close, we have sat at their bedside, held caring roles and provided emotional support… we feel

Hello! It’s been a few weeks since our last blog, and there has been a lot happening. One of the very exciting things recently is that we were contacted by a man who is doing his end of life planning and he wants us to orchestrate his burial! He has very kindly given us permission to share a few pics of his burial site. See, he has already dug the hole! He obtained permission for this burial on private land many years ago – over a decade. Now that’s planning! In addition he has made his own coffin, spoken to his family about his wishes…. he is preparing for the inevitable. He took us to the burial spot, the hole was dug years ago. Not all holes dug

Its Good Friday… which for some is a day off work. For others it is the Holiest of Holy days… either way I hope you are spending it with family, friends or complete strangers that make you smile. The last blog post I wrote, I shared with you a story.. this was the story I took with me to the course I completed, becoming an End of Life Doula. It’s an exciting addition to our services and over the next few months you’ll hear more about Doulas from You n’ Taboo. For now, as promised, the following is a re-write of the story I shared. I have left the story as it was written but I have edited it, taking out the parts that don’t fit and writing

Good evening! I have just returned from a week in Melbourne. While I was there I completed both the one day and three day ‘Preparing the Way’ End of Life Doula training courses run by Helen Callanan. What does that mean? It means I am one step closer to offering my services to people not only after death by way of Family Led Funerals but also as they approach their end of life. There are many services a Doula can offer but generally, a Doula offers information, support and resources to people approaching their end of life and their families. Imagine engaging with someone who could help you navigate the end of life and that person being there for you as a support through the dying, death, funeral and

You n’ Taboo are proud to present….. SHROUDED IN MYSTERY What is a shroud?          Why would you use one?            How does it work?             Have you ever wanted to make one? Join us for a 2 part workshop all about Shrouds, in theory and practice. Take the opportunity to start creating a shroud of your own. In the first workshop, learn about Shrouds & explore why they are used. With the help of some talented people, start thinking about how you would like to create and decorate a Shroud for yourself. Through conversations, we will explore the following- Shrouds : what they are, what they can be and what you can make them Natural Burial, Family Led Funerals, Shrouded burial and cremation  The second workshop will