Fellows Finalists 2024

Erica Xavier-Beauvoir

The Idea

Address barriers around green/natural burial among marginalized communities in Durham, North Carolina.

The Project

Increase awareness of green burial by 20% in marginalized communities through monthly educational events, artistic communal offerings, and creating an online resource hub identifying local resources, toolkits, artisans, and documents for death planning.

More Info

Instagram: @earthingourfunerals
ericaxavierbeauvoir.com

Javiera Arenas, Steve Bachmayer, Kim Burgas

The Idea

Equip people with a toolkit to support more personalized and positive relationships with death through language.

The Project

A team of death positive, Strategic Designers and budding Death Doulas will develop a death language toolkit with and for both individuals and communities. Their approach applies co-design methods and principles to collaboratively develop ways of normalizing and giving intentional language to death conversations in service of a better relationship with death and dying.

More Info

instagram.com/deathlanguages

Equitable Disposition Alliance

The Idea

Expand access to no-to-low-cost disposition for communities across the U.S.

The Project

A free, public-facing, and searchable database compiling the details of public/indigent disposition programs for the (at minimum) the two largest counties in all 50 states in the U.S.

More Info

equitabledisposition.org

Tosha Rochelle Big Eagle

The Idea

Improve end-of-life care for incarcerated women.

The Project

Create evidence-based training manuals for prison staff and incarcerated peer caregivers regarding how to conduct death cafes in prison, support advance care planning conversations, be present with those who are facing death, and cultivate an organizational culture that supports rituals acknowledging loss, grief, and death.

More Info

Research Lab Website

LinkedIn

Instagram: @tosha.bigeagle;

Facebook: Tosha BigEagle

Aura Murillo & Louise Skajem

The Idea

An eco-friendly death care service that sustains new marine life while commemorating past lives.

The Project

Transforming the ashes of those who have died into beautiful memorial reef structures that regenerate marine biodiversity, capture carbon, filter water, and prevent coastal erosion.

More Info

Website: restingreef.co.uk/

Instagram: instagram.com/restingreef/

Linkedin: uk.linkedin.com/company/resting-reef

Facebook: facebook.com/Restingreef/

Marielle A. Cuison

The Idea

Culturally competent and accessible end-of-life resources for Filipino-Americans.

The Project

A free End-of-Life Resource Guide for Filipino-Americans, in both printed and digital forms, in English and Tagalog. The guide will include a wide variety of resources, including listings for Filipino grief counselors and funeral homes with Tagalog-speaking staff.

More Info

Website: thedeathengineer.com

Instagram: @thedeathengineer

Eileen V. Wallis

The Idea

Help Los Angeles residents achieve a good death through policy innovation; culturally sensitive death care; and addressing economic inequalities.

The Project

An interactive website and educational social media campaign exploring the history and evolution of death care in the city throughout the 19th century. This research will provide crucial context regarding contemporary issues surrounding death care access and equity, intended to inform and inspire both Angelenos about their end-of-life decisions, and lawmakers to create policies that allow for more affordable, equitable death care.

More Info

Website

Anni Zylstra

The Idea

An education-focused farm-to-casket practice.

The Project

Weaving together climate-conscious regenerative agriculture and traditional craft, the project will partner with farmers, and launch workshops to teach artisans to how create and provide sustainable willow coffins to their communities. Your Final Gift will expand awareness and increase access to sustainable funeral options.

More Info

weavetheday.com

Australian Home Funeral Alliance

The Idea

Empower people to care for their own dead.

The Project

An educational and skill building workshop enabling participants to become knowledgeable and proficient in death care and provide home funeral resources in their communities. This grassroots, community-based approach will help to address the lack of death literacy in Australian communities, which can often lead to people making uninformed decisions, adversely affecting their financial circumstances and the grief and bereavement outcomes that follow.

More Info

ahfa.org.au

Facebook

Videos

McKenna Dunbar & Sarina Vega

The Idea

Foster conversations about climate change, grief, and death that lead to actionable, environmental justice-forward solutions.

The Project

A booklet, and Climate Death Card Game that will be used to inspire conversations on the cyclical nature of death as it relates to the body, the land and the earth while exploring solutions to environmental issues and death through community engagement.

More Info

LinkedIn

Janelle Ketcher

The Idea

Ritual that creates a tangible connection between the living and the dead.

The Project

An initiative that enables people to send physical letters to those who have died, helping them to navigate death and grief. This ritual practice helps preserve connections to those we’ve lost through the transformative power of storytelling and human connection that can occur beyond the veil of death.

More Info

Website: postalserviceforthedead.com

Instagram

Facebook

Kat Hirsch & Jamie Thrower

The Idea

Help LGBTQIA+ elders to tell their stories and preserve queer histories in an archive.

The Project

Provide legacy support to help queer elders find meaning and purpose at their end-of- life, resulting in a queer history archive. The archive will not only serve as a memorial, but provide support and inspiration to younger queer generations.

More Info

Instagram:
@death.doula.pdx
@legacy_queerarchives
@queergriefclub

jamiethrower.com

Ashley Molese

The Idea

Public programming that speaks to the ritual and educational elements of death spaces and death practices.

The Project

Public art installations on the grounds of historic Congressional Cemetery that invite wider audiences into the cemetery to engage with its historical, cultural, spiritual and environmental opportunities for discourse.

More Info

@rhymeswithgeese

@congcemetery

The Landscape Listens (2024).  Photo by Tommy Bobo.

AJ Hawkins

The Idea

A community space for exploring the question: how do we live with death?

The Project

Housed within an established brick and mortar retail store, The Parlor seeks to address our estranged relationship with death and loss of third spaces by providing their local community with a death positive community space. Programming will strive to revive community deathcare skills and practices, and offer support around other experiences of grief and loss, including disability, illness, and mental health.

More Info

Website: shopkalma.com

Instagram:
@shop_kalma
@entertheparlor

MacKenzie Huneke

The Idea

Creating an archive of Rachel Pollack’s work and personal effects.

The Project

Preserving and creating an archive of the work and possessions of transgender writer and activist, Rachel Pollack, who died in 2023. Pollack was an authority on tarot interpretation, and the creator of DC Comics’ first transgender superhero. Objects from Pollack’s personal collection will be distributed among a community of practitioners who will carry on her legacy.

More Info

mackenziehuneke.com

Instagram: @themackenzieexperience

Sara Martin

The Idea

A documentary film about the history, culture, and future of cremation in the United States.

The Project

A documentary tracing the trajectory of cremation in the U.S. from its origins as a contested, radical alternative to burial, to its contemporary identity and uncertain financial future.The practice of scattering, often done illegally, will also be examined as a symptom of American dissatisfaction and disenchantment with the funeral industry.

More Info

YouTube

Farley Center for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability/Natural Path Sanctuary

The Idea

An outdoor art installation that encourages meditation on mortality.

The Project

An art installation on the wooded land of a green burial site and the Farley Center For Peace, Justice and Sustainability. 30 artists will create outdoor land art that explores how people encounter and experience dying, mourning and remembering using only materials that can decompose back into the land.

About

naturalpathsanctuary.org

www.farleycenter.org

Facebook Pages:
Natural Path Sanctuary
Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability

Instagram: @farley_center

Kirsti Shields

The Idea

Assist unhoused individuals to outline their end-of-life preferences for a database that will be accessible to health care providers, and can later be used to create memorials.

The Project

Using story-telling, unhoused individuals in Rochester, NY, can participate in facilitated sessions held at local shelters, creating the opportunity to reflect on and record their life narrative and explore end-of-life preferences which will be entered into a database that can be accessed by care providers with their consent. In the event of a participant’s death, an online memorial will be launched to commemorate their life with photographs and obituaries provided based on information provided and prior consent by participants.

More Info

odysseyendoflifecare.org