Melburnians planning to bury a loved one in the city’s cemeteries are facing steep price hikes, with some grand memorial options surging up to 400% over the past decade.
Cemeteries across Australia, particularly in the inner city, are nearing capacity and those vying for a burial plot must fork out for prized pieces of real estate due to rising labour and construction costs.
Death is often an uncomfortable topic, but as an inevitable part of life, it’s something that we should seek to find comfort with.
Bone is intrinsically linked to the concept of life and of death, and for this MPavilion event, Catherine Bell (artist) and Prof. Tamara Kohn (from the DeathTech Research team at the University of Melbourne), explored how we can transform bone from simply a material, into a concept that collectively connects us. Participants sculpted personal mementos while sharing ideas about loss and grief, death and dying, and the many ways we cope with these processes that make us human.
This event was developed as part of the M_Curators, an MPavilion program engaging young makers, doers and programmers.
When Emma McGregor’s brother died 22 years ago, his death was sudden and unexpected.
“We had old photo albums of Matthew and we would look through those … to reflect on him,” she tells ABC RN’s Life Matters.
“As you can imagine, back then there was no technology around memorialisation at all.”
These days Ms. McGregor works for a company that makes memorial plaques for graves.
When she learnt about the existence of smart plaques, which can link to an online site commemorating the deceased, the idea instantly appealed.
“I thought, you know, it’s a great tool that will enable family and friends to be able to share memories and experiences about Matthew that we can reflect on at a time that we feel that we need to,” she says.
Now her company makes smart and traditional plaques.
She says when she arranged a smart plaque for her brother’s grave, at first the process of uploading content involved more grieving.
“It makes you miss him even more. But I think over time, it actually helps,” she says.
For example, during the 2020 and 2021 COVID lockdowns, when Ms McGregor couldn’t leave Victoria to visit her brother’s grave-site in New South Wales, she could visit virtually.
“I was able to log on and have a look at some of the videos and stories that we had on the app about Matthew, which does help at those difficult times through anniversaries and also through birthdays,” she says.
She says her mother has also taken some comfort from the technology, which allows users to upload photos and writing.
“On my brother’s anniversary, [my mum] sat at his grave-site and she wrote a little piece [online] to say how much she misses him.”
Around 70 per cent of Australians are choosing cremation over traditional burial after death, says a leading anthropologist.
Dr Hannah Gould from Melbourne University’s Death Tech team joined David Astle on Evenings to explain why long-held traditions have been left behind in favour of more environmental and cost-friendly options.
With a number of cemeteries across the country running out of room, it’s not just the living who are facing a housing crisis.
Australia’s annual death numbers are expected to double by 2050, leaving city planners to face a very grave question: what happens if we run out of room to bury our dead?
Death is often an uncomfortable topic, but as an inevitable part of life, it’s something that we should seek to find comfort with.
Bone is intrinsically linked to the concept of life and of death, and this event seeks to explore how we can transform it from simply a material, into a concept that collectively connects us.
Join us at MPavilion with artist Catherine Bell as she guides us to sculpt a personal memento to loss and grief, death and dying—and the ways we cope with it that fundamentally make us human.
Participants are also invited to engage in a reflective conversation addressing concepts around bone, and the topic of death, led in part by professor Tamara Kohn from the DeathTech team at The University of Melbourne.
This event has been developed as part of the M_Curators, an MPavilion program engaging young makers, doers and programmers.
Audiences are advised that this event includes topics and content that may be confronting or distressing for some people
The seminars covered topics including sustainable alternatives to burial and cremation, the role of cemeteries as recreational public spaces, the use of digital technology in the cemetery sector, and high-tech death practices in East Asia and beyond. The series concluded with a panel discussion on ‘the future cemetery’ with panellists from DeathTech and GMCT.
Dr Fraser Allison spoke to ABC Radio National’s Life Matters program about the proliferation of digital technology at cemeteries. The episode covered augmented reality tours, in-coffin audio systems and digitally enhanced gravestones.
Listen to the segment on the Radio National website or on the Life Matters podcast for 14 December 2022).
In this webinar hosted by the International Collaborative for Best Care for the Dying Person, Dr Bjorn Nansen and Amara Nwosu discussed the practicalities of death and dying in an increasingly digital world.
