Hi Vizzy D’s, Writing to you today from Kabi Kabi Country on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. I’ve been immersed this week in Artlands, Australia’s biggest gathering of regional creative practitioners. It’s part symposium, part think tank, part workshop. A big, beautiful gathering of artists, cultural workers, First Nations knowledge holders, thinkers, policymakers and collaborators asking some pretty big questions about the role of creative practice. And I’ve found myself thinking a LOT about death care. Because what if creativity isn’t just something we bring TO death care? What if creativity is one of the ways we actually change it? Whilst I have an Arts degree and have worn many creative hats over the years, it’s clear to me now that my current creative practice is death. It’s what I pour my heart and imagination into: funeral ceremony, participatory rituals, designing experiences that help people navigate grief, belonging and the enormous liminal space between what was and what comes next. Even the punish of creating social media content - it’s all part of thinking about death care in creative ways. And the more I work in this space, the more I see that we’re not just talking about designing better funerals. We’re talking about systems. A funeral industry built around particular assumptions about who holds the knowledge, who makes the decisions, what a funeral looks like, what a family’s role is, what happens to a body, where grief belongs and how much participation we’re allowed. And systems are notoriously good at reproducing themselves. So if we want something different, we need to be able to imagine something different first. And that’s where creativity comes in. Artists have always been pretty good at asking: What if? What if the family held the ceremony? What if a funeral could happen somewhere other than a chapel? What if children were welcomed into the ritual? What if the coffin was made by the community? What if grief was something we made space for rather than something we tried to move people through?

OMG! I just spent 2 hours creating a carousel post in Instagram. By the end I couldn’t even bear to write multiple captions - I was done! Canva is usually easy but today it was doing my head in. The text editor kept disappearing and I had to keep refreshing it. Anyway - given my pain I would love some love and comments on it!!!! 💕. Please https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddb9aocAKK-/?stkn=MXdmdzJzdGgxbzQweA==

Darling Vizzy D's - writing to you a little late this week because I am currently up to my eyeballs in cats claw vine, running our Coffin Weaving Weekend with the wonderful Zimmi Forrest. A few pics attached because LOOK AT WHAT IS EMERGING. 🌿 And honestly, this weekend has been such a beautiful reminder of something I think we can easily forget in this work: We need to gather. Gather with our peers. Gather with colleagues. Gather with people who understand the strange, beautiful, tender work that we do. Whether that’s face-to-face around a table, in a workshop covered in vines, or virtually from your laptop, there is something incredibly nourishing about having space to decompress, share what’s happening, ask the question you’ve been carrying around, witness someone else’s experience and learn from each other. This weekend has been nourishing me in all the ways. A gentle reminder that sometimes we don't need to do more. We just need to create the space. And let people come. 🐦‍⬛ So this week’s Visible Friday prompt is very simple: Where are you gathering? Who are the people you can talk to about this work? Where do you go when you need to download after a hard day? Who makes you feel less alone in the work? And if the answer is not many people… perhaps this is your nudge to find them. Here are a few ways you can gather with us over the coming weeks: 🐦‍⬛ THE DEATH WORKER SUMMIT — 24–27 SEPTEMBER I’m speaking at The Death Worker Summit, a free 4-day virtual event bringing together 20 end-of-life practitioners who have built real, sustainable practices around this work. I’ll be talking about The Intake Conversation for Celebrants. Because so many of us are called to this work and show up with genuine devotion, but nobody hands us a marketing degree and teaches us how to “sell” what we do. Knowing how to clearly communicate who you are and what you do is such an important part of building a sustainable practice. In my session, I’ll walk through that first intake conversation — the exchange that happens when someone is considering working with you — and use it as the entry point for developing clearer key messaging.

Hi everyone I’ve been booked to take my first memorial. The person requested a direct cremation and now the family are planning to celebrate his life next month. While I have created and led many funeral ceremonies I have yet to lead a memorial. I feel comfortable with the overall process but am wondering how you end the service. I often use a blessing before the farewell / committal - would this be a fitting end? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance Beth

Darling Vizzy D's: Writing to you whilst utterly face planting into the weekend... You too?? But here I am, and here you are. Because if nothing else, we keep showing up for each other. Even if it's just a brief fleeting inbox exchange or a cyber hug, I'm here, and so are you. *HUG* I actually have a jumble of things I wanted to offer this week and couldn't choose, so here's three quick tidbits: 🐦‍⬛ Dementia Friendly Funerals I held a memorial today for a gentleman who filled his 89 years with all sorts of adventures. Until his sudden death a few weeks ago, he was the full time carer to his beloved wife of 63 years, who has dementia. It's the ultimate devastating scenario. She isn't retaining that he has died and keeps searching for him, but also has fleeting moments of acknowledging his death, then forgets, then remembers again. The whole family were devoted to creating a ceremony that best served her today, because they knew that's what their dad would have cared about most. It's such a tender, complex and delicate balance to get right. Lucky for me, my dear colleague from the UK, @Rosalie Kuyvenhoven, passionately shares her expertise in this area and has an online class specialising in Dementia Friendly Funerals. I revisited her masterclass to bolster my preparation and it was wonderful, generous and helpful. Details: https://ritualstoday.co.uk/product/online-training-dementia-friendly-funerals/ I wholeheartedly recommend Rosalie's training, and I want to ask you all: what hidden gems or areas of expertise do we have in this community that we could be learning from each other? and/or: what area of this work could YOU be teaching/sharing? 🐦‍⬛ Facebook aka My Abandoned Digital Houseplant Guys, are y'all on Facebook? I'll be honest, I loathe it. I create mostly for Insta and share the same content across Facebook and TikTok. I treat my Facebook page like an abandoned houseplant I've forgotten to water. Next minute, it's officially my biggest platform by followers.