The Departure

22/02/2026

Submission close 8 pm (AEST), Sunday 26 April. -- Grief isolates. Storytelling brings people back into connection. Storytelling is an act of survival, an act of memory, of love, and an act of community. Storytelling is not just cathartic — it reaffirms our belonging to the world. We invite writers...

22/02/2026

How we say goodbye is shifting.

At the 2025 Lifting the Lid International Festival of Death and Dying, Whiteballoon hosted a fascinating discussion on how funerals and end-of-life ceremonies are evolving — and why clarity matters more than ever.

With growing choices — from celebrations of life to natural burial and living funerals — the landscape can feel both liberating and overwhelming. In this session, John Adams, Katie Costello, Jess May and Dr Bill Webster share insight, experience and practical wisdom to help people navigate these changes with confidence.

The recording is now live on YouTube.
Watch, share, and subscribe for upcoming festival releases.

https://youtu.be/KeuBK5sGzaE?si=nGADv4YVdWx7psqQ

22/02/2026

**** Last Days to Book - Happening this week!****

The last few years has seen various versions of water cremation 'pop up' in conversation all over Australia. Join us to hear from those leading the way in making these options available. Bring your questions and enquiring minds as they generously share their process, advocacy and excitement for this work.

Guest Panelists - Jeff Boyle; Jeff's journey in the funeral industry began 35 years ago as a supplier, before establishing Funeral Transfer Services Australia (FTSA) — the first professional refrigerated funeral transfer company in Australia. FTSA began with a single vehicle and, under Jeff (and Judy’s) leadership, grew to a 14-vehicle fleet operating as a statewide and interstate shuttle service across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. After 11 successful years, they sold the business to Ashton Manufacturing in 2008. He then purchased Funeral Services Whitsunday from Janet and Bruce DeDear, rebranding it as Whitsunday Funerals and Crematorium, and later expanding into Bowen with a modern 250-seat chapel and crematorium. In 2013, recognising the need for a true alternative to traditional burial and flame cremation, Jeff began more than a decade of R&D that led to The Gentle Way — now operating in Brisbane, Mackay, and Townsville. This innovative water-based process offers a fully environmentally responsible farewell. Their system is the only one in the world with a patent-pending filtration technology capable of meeting environmental standards globally.

Luke Cripps is a Director at Alluvium Water Cremations with almost a decade of experience in the death industry in a variety of roles, and an established reputation for creative and innovative approaches to the promotion of death-literacy in the community.

DATE - Wednesday 25-February 2026, 6.30PM - 8.30PM AEDT

Learn more via our website - www.ndan.com.au/events
Book directly via https://www.trybooking.com/DIJLX

21/02/2026

From the Death Letter Project: Series One
Sarah Barry | Tarot Reader

Being a fulltime tarot reader gives me the opportunity to connect strongly with humanity and all the fears and hopes that arise during a human life. This includes questions around death. I don’t connect with the dead for many reasons, one being that it cannot be proven that the story I share is from one who is dead, or the strong memory of the living person sitting opposite me.

Death continues to be a very strange thing for me to contemplate. I have no need for hard and fast theories around this theme. I am content with the mystery, yet understand that the more I meditate and talk openly about death, the more content I feel with life.

I spent four years volunteering at a hospice, and facing death on a regular basis helped me relax around this huge concept and what it might entail for me one day. Bearing witness to the end of people’s mortal existence changed my relationship with myself: I found it easier to stop neurotically worrying about aspects of my life. The dying did indeed teach me to live.

To this day I have sat with three bodies – two who were dear to me. They looked so empty without their life force. Seeing that helped me consider that they were now a part of everything and that I am inhaling the energy that was them in every moment. There is so much to inhale!

Existentialism is a constant in my life. It really gets me sometimes. The idea proposed in the movie ‘The Matrix’ that we are all batteries for aliens while our minds live in a computer game is to me far more plausible than the concept of a god.

But I prefer to live without committing to an idea. Even though I have had experiences that point to a clear definition, I choose to keep connecting to the mystery. It is true that I dreamt I was flying into golden light with my friend Emma at the exact moment she was dying unexpectedly. Though I am aware that the unenlightened mind can only grasp at these experiences.

Every day when I meditate and particularly when I’m at a 10 Day Vipassana meditation course, I am reminded of the impermanence of everything. I will dissolve one day, as will all those I love. I can only hope that I stay committed to personal growth so that I can achieve what I am capable of.

—Sarah Barry (2015)

Editor's note: Since Sarah's letter was published in 2018, Sarah's career has transitioned into the end-of-life space. Alongside her tarot practice, Sarah is an independent mortality doula and funeral celebrant in both Sydney and the Blue Mountains. You can find out more about her doula & celebrant work at sarahbarrydoula.com and her tarot work at sarahthepsychic.com.

For the full editorial please visit: https://www.deathletterprojects.com/sarah-barry

20/02/2026

I’m hearing the F word everywhere this week in fire impacted communities.

Frustration.

Frustrated with the process.
Frustrated with government.
Frustrated with assessments.
Frustrated with the paperwork.
Frustrated they’re not further ahead.
Frustrated with being so bloody tired.

Just f*^ken frustrated.

This is what happens when the adrenaline wears off.
In the beginning you run on survival. You clear. You act. You don’t stop.
Now it’s phone calls. Forms. Waiting. Re-telling your story. Financial stress. Decisions you don’t feel ready to make.

Research tells us this stage, when the urgency fades and the grind begins, is where frustration and exhaustion spike.

Not because people are ungrateful.

Because they’re carrying sustained load.

You can be thankful for support and still be angry at the system.
Both can be true.
If you’re feeling it, you’re not broken.
You’re tired.
Keep talking. Keep checking in. Don’t let frustration turn into silence.

This phase is real.

20/02/2026

Today Prue Leith turns 86 – and she has spoken candidly about how she hopes her life will end.

After describing her brother’s death from bone cancer as “agonising”, the chef has become an active campaigner for assisted dying, saying she wants more choice at the end of her own life.

“I want to die at home, in my own bed, surrounded by my nearest and dearest with plenty of painkillers so that I can say my goodbyes. And then, when I’m ready, I want to swallow a drug that will send me to sleep.”

“I see the matter in very simple terms: whose life is it anyway? Why do I not get a say? If we think it merciful to put a dying dog down, why can’t I have that too? Wouldn’t you rather your loved ones remembered the good times, not your agonising death?”

20/02/2026

20/02/2026

Save the Date!

🧡 National Palliative Care Week
📅 10–16 May 2026

This year, we’re getting to the heart of it.
Big questions. Real answers.

Stay tuned!

19/02/2026

✨Internationally renowned witch, bestselling author, and former 90s rockstar Fiona Horne invites you to a special event celebrating her new book Coven – Where Witches Gather and its matching oracle deck. With 15 books and four oracle decks published over nearly 30 years, Fiona is one of the world’s most recognised modern witches and a trailblazer of the 1990s witchcraft movement.

Through inspiring stories from her life and work — spanning Egypt, Transylvania, Bali, and beyond — Fiona shares her journey of empowerment, sisterhood, and adventure. In a time when so many feel isolated behind screens, Coven – Where Witches Gather reminds us of the transformative magic of coming together in person.

✨ Mar 27
✨5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
✨ Bendigo Library
✨ Book now at goldfieldslibraries.com/bendigo-events/

Book sales and signings available. Q & A included.

Witchcraft For Beginners Central Highlands Coven Q***r Pagans Australia Macedon Ranges Coven Witches of OZ

19/02/2026

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/19/israel-bulldoze-gaza-australia-allied-war-dead-graves-cemetery?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Daniel Cotterill, whose uncle’s grave has been destroyed, wants Australian officials allowed into Gaza to assess the ‘industrial damage’