In this workshop, we will explore how to be with yourself in a dying process, while you accompany someone you love. It will address questions such as dying at home, home-based after death care, integrated funeral care and ceremony creation. We will also speak to the role and power of contemporary ceremony and storytelling in our funeral rites.

While holding forms an integral part of many physical interactions, and while it can, by itself, generate intense emotions and sensations, it is rarely investigated on its own merit. Often we do not actually feel safely held, even though that is what we long for. We can only truly let go when we know that someone will be there to hold us. Once we understand what it is that makes being held a less than satisfying experience, we can be clearer about what it is that we wish to feel in an embrace and where to place our attention.

In this workshop you will be invited to engage with a range of religious and spiritual meditations on death, and to use those in order to reflect on what you have learned, or perhaps not wanted to learn, in losing someone you loved.

Dr. Peter Saul has helped to write all the current NSW Health guidelines about end of life, and is a senior intensive care specialist working in both public and private hospitals. His excellent TED Talk "Lets' Talk About Dying" has been seen by nearly a million people. Dr. Saul's workshop will give you advice as to how to talk to doctors, and how to make decisions for others and for yourself. It will include elements of planning ahead, understanding personal values (and how these influence the decisions we make for others) and how to take control when that is needed. 

This workshop will focus on some of the unusual language and experiences of dying patients. It explores the history and significance of end-of-life dreams and visions and will show how these experiences and the language used by dying patients are often ignored or misinterpreted in today’s highly sophisticated medical environment. It will explore the myths and truths surrounding their cause and provide examples to illustrate the profound healing effect end-of-life dreams and visions can have on the person dying and their carers.

When her mother Evangalia, died of breast cancer in 1995 a process began that both devastated and enlightened Efterpi Soropos to research and develop sensory concepts that would create a better perception of space and environment through the senses for vulnerable people. HUMAN ROOMS™ is an immersive experiential concept that can assist participants to reduce stress, induce relaxation and meditative states within a peaceful and harmonious environment that is self directed.

One of the most profound and intimate experiences is to be wounded and unable to forgive. The inability to forgive may not be something that is simply chosen. Something very powerful continues to say ‘no’, even if one would like to say ‘yes’, to forgive the other, believing that it will make things easier, lighter and better from now on. In certain cases even after one has said ‘yes’ and meant ‘yes’, the ‘no’ insists. 

In this role-playing workshop, based on Alan’s solo performance Share my Coffin, we imagine and enact the idea that one is in their own coffin being not ready (unprepared) for death and departure, with things left unsaid or yet to say, conversations yet unfinished, feedback not heard.

In their respective roles, workshop participants will take turns to lie in a simple coffin and speak with those gathered around who witness and support them by taking on significant roles, listening and/or responding as stand-ins, representing those with whom there may be unfinished business and issues.

What could a compassionate community be? And what role might it play in the dying process and in death? Join a panel of people who are passionate about re-imagining the role of communities in death and dying in Australia.  

Terminal cancer is such a common diagnosis, but unless we have had personal experience with it we are very sheltered from how it feels to be diagnosed. Often we are at a loss just simply knowing how to respond when someone confides in us that they're dying. In this workshop Tamara candidly shares her own experience of being diagnosed with terminal cancer at 36, and provides an opportunity for everyone to explore how their lives would be impacted if they received this diagnosis. The second part of the workshop investigates the question of what is an appropriate response when the ill person tells you, the healthy person, that they're terminal. To conclude the workshop, there will be a no holds barred discussion and Q&A session around terminal illness where nothing is taboo.

In this workshop internationally renowned artist, Maree Clarke, will speak about mourning practices of South Eastern Australia. In particular, she will focus on the practice of wearing Kopi mourning caps.

Participants will first listen to a talk and then be guided through a process of experiencing clay headwear (Kopi) to support a deepened understanding of Aboriginal culture and the connections between arts and emotional well-being. The workshop will address ‘Sorry Business’, with the greatest respect.

We are honoured to announced that Frank Ostaseski, co-founder of the Zen Hospice in San Francisco and the Metta Institute will be speaking via tele-conference at the festival. He will be speaking about deep listening and compassion in end of life care, as well as about his new book The Five Invitations. He teaches that reflection on death causes us to be more responsible—in our relationships, with ourselves, with the planet, with our future.

Together we will use meditation and visualisation techniques to create a vision of the end of our own lives. In safety and whilst being deeply held by experienced practitioners, participants will be invited to then explore the many elements of end of life, after death and funeral care currently available in Australia. 

Accompanying a loved one to their death is an unfamiliar expedition in our predominantly death-phobic society.

Thrust into the mysterious world of dying and death without preparation for what’s ahead, the living can struggle through the fog, stumble clumsily within alien surroundings and ride the emotional whirlwind with heavy hearts and clouded minds.

In this workshop we are going to depart by reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s last unfinished poem: “Come you, you last one” and Maurice Blanchot’s very short novel “The Instant of my Death”, which recounts an ecstatic experience of death at the hands of the Nazis at the end of World War II. These 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).

When her mother Evangalia, died of breast cancer in 1995 a process began that both devastated and enlightened Efterpi Soropos to research and develop sensory concepts that would create a better perception of space and environment through the senses for vulnerable people. HUMAN ROOMS™ is an immersive experiential concept that can assist participants to reduce stress, induce relaxation and meditative states within a peaceful and harmonious environment that is self directed.

Funeral ceremony planning can be exquisite relief to the dying and a thoughtful, deep ceremony can assist the grieving process with grace for survivors and friends. You will receive some guidelines and a chance to begin writing your own eulogy, perhaps a confronting task.

How do we sit with the dead? How do we journey with the dead? Pippa White and Annie Bolitho are end of life practitioners who help families who wish to accompany their dying ones at home. In this workshop they will give you a visual demonstration of their practice, which is informed by the rich and diverse cultural traditions of Melbourne. 

It’s common after a loss or a death to feel very stressed, confused and tired.  If the loss or death happened in a sudden or traumatic way, like a suicide, disaster or an accident, then the stress, confusion and tiredness can be overwhelming. It is possible to be able to cope with these events, but sometimes it’s hard to know if you or other people affected are doing OK.

In this interfaith panel we will explore how faith and the afterlife is thought about in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. 

Pia Interlandi explores the ways fashion design can directly approach the realities of the dead body, specifically, the moments between death and disintegration, and in doing so, seeks to contribute to the ways in which fashion design can play an important role in the way we approach the dead body and the rituals surrounding death.

I lay motionless on a bench in a concrete grotto in Katoomba, a melancholy and intimate space for the contemplation of one’s own mortality. My then 4 year-old daughter, Ramona, caringly shrouds my body with sarongs, symbolic of my past life (and her birth) in Darwin. I remain still throughout. As the shrouding progresses my head eventually too is covered and I am forced to succumb to blindness and abandon all control. I had become silent, an absent mother.

In this role-playing workshop, based on Alan’s solo performance Share my Coffin, we imagine and enact the idea that one is in their own coffin being not ready (unprepared) for death and departure, with things left unsaid or yet to say, conversations yet unfinished, feedback not heard.

The Inaugural Melbourne Festival of Death and Dying will conclude with a closing ceremony and curated feast to help you digest the festival. (Vegetarian and Gluten Free Options Available). It is possible to come just for the feast.

This workshop is a two day process, which will draw from Pancha Tanmantra (a West Javanese energetic practice). It will conclude with a circle in which you may encounter the energies of a deceased or living family member, friend or lover.  You must attend both workshops to take part in this. 

An Evening of Long and Short Works with Alice Cummins, Alan Schacher, WeiZen Ho, Peter Banki and others. More information coming soon.

In this workshop, we will open a space for dialogue and reflection about this difficult, complex and often very stigmatised subject. In the first part, we will explore in a sensitive and careful way the effects of the suicides of others on us. In the second part, we will approach the question of our own suicidal thoughts and fantasies: where do they come from? What do we do with them?

The proximity to death is not necessarily negative, it can be that which gives us the feeling of being most alive. Death touches us not simply as “a fact of life”, but also as a fantasmatic object of desire. Many people, consciously or unconsciously, search for limit-experiences for the intensity and thrill of being on the threshold of something that gives them the feeling of being close to death.

This workshop explores the history and significance of end-of-life dreams and visions and will show how these experiences and the language used by dying patients are often ignored or misinterpreted in today’s highly sophisticated medical environment. It will explore the myths and truths surrounding their cause and provide examples to illustrate the profound healing effect end-of-life dreams and visions can have on the person dying and their carers.

These works were made in response to my father’s death. They use photography analogically to reveal the metaphysical presence of death in life. I perform dressing in my dead father’s suits backwards, striving to form an imagined embrace with my father, reaching across to him in death. Using my body in his suits, I try to simultaneously mimic him, and to merge my body with his lingering presence, so I can somehow – if only momentarily – inhabit his skin.

In this semi-ritual /semi-performance workshop Alan will lead participants through a process of group invocation, where all participants will simultaneously invite and invoke a deceased relative, significant other or friend, to become present to a gathering within the room.  In other words the room will become doubled, populated with the living and the imagined spirits.

Stephen Jenkinson is one of the world's most powerful and poetic advocates against the death phobia of our culture. Author of Die Wise, he will be speaking via video link from Ontario, Canada on Saturday 19th November as part of the Sydney Festival of Death and Dying.

We are honoured to announce that musical thanatologist, Peter Roberts, will be joining us at the festival. 

Repeated opinion polls show that the vast majority of Australians want the option of a medically assisted death, should they be faced with unrelievable suffering at the end of life. Yet bills that have attempted to legalise end-of-life choices have been consistently voted down in our state parliaments.

A “Soul Kit” is where you will keep all your end of life wishes, stored in one easy to find place for one day when it will be needed. It will also have the things you are proudest about your life that you want to be known as your legacy.

This yoga class will begin with Savasana with the aim of developing a Savasana mind and taking that deep relaxation through the class. Intensity is often seen as fast and physically difficult and more exciting than slowing down and really feeling what is happening – in our mind, in our body. But intensity can be tender, it can be instinctive and intuitive, it can be spacious and slow.

In this interfaith panel we will explore how faith and the afterlife is thought about in Judaism and Buddhism.

Essential Phowa is a Buddhist practice for the moment of death. This workshop will teach you this practice and show you how we can prepare for death so that we can die with a peace of mind and even with confidence.

In Australia, 70 percent say they want to die in the comfort and intimacy of their own homes, but less than 20 percent do.  What, if anything, can we learn from those who succeed? What are the factors that enable home death? And what can we do to plan well-enough for our own care when we are dying?

In this workshop Mal and Diane will share their insights on living with grief, based on their over 40 years of experience in the field of bereavement counselling.

In this workshop we are going to depart by reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s last unfinished poem: “Come you, you last one” and Maurice Blanchot’s very short novel “The Instant of my Death”, which recounts an ecstatic experience of death at the hands of the Nazis at the end of World War II. These will open the space for a discussion of four of the most influential theses on death and dying in twentieth century Western philosophy: