GREEN DEATHCARE MOVEMENT
Green funerals, green burial and green deathcare are definitely gaining
momentum as the demand for more earth-friendly products and services
and a genuine concern for the health of our planet grows.
However, beyond the carbon footprint or ‘green’ products let us
remember that the core
of the community deathcare movement which seeks
to reclaim our engagement with death and deathcare is rooted in a
deeply ecological approach.
Empowering families and communities to participate in the care of their
dead necessarily fosters a sense of connectedness to place, to those
who
came before us, to the land and to the natural world that our
bodies return to, regardless of method of disposition. Reclaiming
a culture that views death
as a natural process and hands-on deathcare
as natural practices can also bring us closer to nature through the act
of village making.
Community Deathcare Québec advocates
not only for ‘green’ deathcare practices as an act of kindness towards
our Mother Earth
who receives our material bodies at death, but also as
a heart-centred approach to deepen our connection with the natural
cycles of life
for human, plant, animal and other communities with whom
we share our lives and our deaths.
(Many thanks to Cassandra Yonder for inspiring the languaging of this text and of the community deathcare movement)