COMING SOON - Here We Are, The Living is an immersive journey through a holistic funeral home in South Sydney, and an intimate map of how we care for the dying, the dead and each other.

In a culture marked by fear and avoidance, Jess Hamilton wants to know how to talk about death. Over years, she’s collected sounds and stories from Life Rites, an independent funeral home founded by artist, end-of-life doula and funeral director, Victoria Spence.

Room-by-room, Jess follows Victoria deeper into the building, where she meets doulas, morticians, florists, artists, coffin manufacturers and others working invisibly to care for the dead and the living who love them.

As the story unfolds, it becomes a map for reclaiming lost knowledge and language around dying, and empowering people to make sense of what it means to die, lose, grieve, rebuild and to live.

Visit our virtual map of the funeral home at herewearetheliving.com.

Here We Are, The Living is a Quiet Night production made by Jess Hamilton and Victoria Spence of Life Rites Funerals. Original music by Adam Connelly and Billy Ward. Mix by Laura Brierley-Newtown. Editorial Support by Farz Edraki. Artwork by Annie Hamilton.

This project was made with support of Create NSW, Content is Queen and many individual supporters through the Australian Cultural Fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the fun home! We cross the threshold with a crowd of curious people who’ve come to explore the funeral home on Dying to Know Day. We’ll unravel the past hundred years of death avoidance to understand why we find death so awkward and uncomfortable in Western culture.

As we step inside, we meet Victoria, Life Rites’ Founder, and hear her story of coming of age in the 80s in Sydney, witnessing the HIV/AIDS epidemic run through her community, arriving to this work and building. And Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovener shares how she came to be Life Rites’ Elder in Residence after running from death for many years.

This is a safe and creative story about the-end-of-life, and we understand there may be some topics that are sensitive for people with lived experience. Specific topics by timecode in this episode:

17:00 - 21:04 Witnessing the HIV/AIDS epidemic

Visit our virtual map of the funeral home at herewearetheliving.com. Support our impact campaign here. Share a story, feedback or testimonial with us here.

Here We Are, The Living is a Quiet Night production made by Jess Hamilton in collaboration with Victoria Spence and the Life Rites team. Original music by Adam Connelly and Billy Ward. Mix by Jess Hamilton and Laura Brierley-Newtown. Editorial Support by Farz Edraki. Artwork by Annie Hamilton.

This project was made with support of Create NSW, Content is Queen and many individual supporters through the Australian Cultural Fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We step into the “arrangement room”, where people first come if they’re organising a funeral. Victoria hands us a booklet about shock, and recollects organising her parents’ funerals. Jude shares stories of the first funerals in the building, and Skye tells us what happens after a death. We hear an intimate and powerful story of a father navigating the death of his wife, and finding meaningful ways to involve their daughter.

Visit our virtual map of the funeral home at herewearetheliving.com. Support our impact campaign here. Share a story, feedback or testimonial with us here.

This is a safe and creative story about the-end-of-life, and we understand there may be some topics that are sensitive for people with lived experience. Specific topics by timecode in this episode:

17:00 - 23:20 Cancer, and talking to children about the death of a parent

Here We Are, The Living is a Quiet Night production made by Jess Hamilton and Victoria Spence of Life Rites Funerals. Original music by Adam Connelly and Billy Ward. Mix by Jess Hamilton and Laura Brierley-Newtown. Editorial Support by Farz Edraki. Artwork by Annie Hamilton. This episode features Victoria Spence, Ben Gibson, Jude Neeme-Samson, Lei Chen and Skye Robertson.

This project was made with support of Create NSW, Content is Queen and many individual supporters through the Australian Cultural Fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We start this episode with in a big and busy coffin factory, guided by Johnny and Matt. Jess tries out a pandanus coffin, and Leah shows us seedy silk shrouds dyed with flowers and turmeric. We put hands to materials in the coffin room, and imbi grounds us in human composting.

Visit our virtual map of the funeral home at herewearetheliving.com. Support our impact campaign here. Share a story, feedback or testimonial with us here.

Here We Are, The Living is a Quiet Night production made by Jess Hamilton and Victoria Spence of Life Rites Funerals. Original music by Adam Connelly and Billy Ward. Mix by Jess HamiltonLaura Brierley-Newtown. Editorial Support by Farz Edraki. Artwork by Annie Hamilton. This episode features Victoria Spence, Johnny Mat Byron from Key Industries, Sarah Barry, Leah Giblin, and imbar amira nassi (aka imbi)

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This project was made with support of Create NSW, Content is Queen and many individual supporters through the Australian Cultural Fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.