About Me
“I know in my bones we can meet death -
before, during & after … differently.”
I doula’d my Dad’s dying process alongside my family in 2019. I have never been the same since.
There was life before Dad’s death and there is life after. The best way we can honour our dead, according to me, is by living. Today I acknowledge so many deaths, whether they were people or pets, shaped me. The death shapes the grief and we are all grieving. Something, someone, some time, some place. I thank death daily for it’s sometimes brutal but more often beautiful teachings.
In 2020 I stepped into Zentih Virago’s Death Walker training and again my life trajectory shifted, seemingly further out of the mainstream. I realised death was schooling me in life and the preciousness of living, not punishing me. A death curiosity was activated and I went on to study more ways to support our dying with Denise Love and Barbara Ferguson.
I learned I didn’t like the funeral industry but realised I didn’t really KNOW the funeral industry. I threw my hat in the ring for a job as funeral conductor and behind the scenes I went. From here I seemingly naturally ended up in the Mortuary. There I realised my skills and strengths are best shared with the living although I will never ever ever forget the people I met there. Everyone I cared for, was someone’s person. After death care has the potential to be profound and when well supported, I suspect can play a role in harm minimisation as folks integrate the vast complexity of loss we all get to experience.
I have never followed a career path however never did I ever imagine I’d end up here, doing the most meaningful work that’s called me to date. Yoga and meditation provide a back bone, a skeleton even (pun fan) for my offerings. Death is of the body, so I believe we must include and consult the innate wisdom of the body when exploring end of life. It would be rude not to. Even science is now catching up with the truth that the body keeps the score, grief inhabits the body and needs tending to so as not to congeal.
Whilst volunteering in Hospice and frequenting facilities to transfer people to their final destination, I saw how death AND grief illiteracy is actually systemic. Death is political and end of life planning is a privilege not afforded to everyone. Dying with dignity is a basic human right and I support the voluntary assisted dying movement. I also advocate for end of life planning to be done whilst alive and well, wherever possible.
Seeing death on the daily has absolutely recombobulated what’s important in this life and it sure as shit ain’t taxes. I have, by choice and a fickle sense of social justice, inserted myself into the death trade as an ignition source to re-imagine death care.
I’m immensely grateful to all those I have worked with for giving their grief a chance and for believing me - living proof - that talking about death won’t kill you. It may just change the way you life though. I’ve been having these conversations for years now and honestly, it never ceases to humble me. Being with people in their most vulnerable moments, holding hands and hearts in the depths of being human is perhaps what this is about.
I hope my work tickles a remembering that death’s presences is an invitation to make sacred our final earthly chapter. It feels both oddly rebellious and equally a divine time to be alive.
I work with individuals, groups and families in home, community settings and workplaces. Grief and death know no boundaries.
All the love
Erin
“I know in my bones we can meet death -
before, during & after … differently.”
Interviews
Learn more about what I do by listening to some of my interviews…
Who I work with
"I acknowledge the original custodians as care takers of the lands in which I live, learn and love. I pay my respects to Elders past, present & emerging. I celebrate the stories, culture & traditions of First Nations & Torres Strait Islander people and recognise their on-going connection to land, waters, culture & community.