Helen
08
Aug
The leaf
- By Helen
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It’s August and I can see a leaf on a tree outside my window, being blown by the wind. It appears to be clinging on for its life. The colour of the leaf is yellow and brown suggesting that life for it is coming to an end. The leaf dropped as quick as a person stops breathing forever. It is blown and crushed into the gutter, later perhaps, washed down a storm-water drain and becomes part of a body of water or becomes part of soil, either way, it will become something else in another cycle and form.
09
Nov
Lynda, New York State, USA
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Helen
I just wanted to let you know how beautifully perfect the shroud turned out. Our son passed away in August, and we filled the shroud with love then lay it on him before we said goodby. It was beautiful.
Best regards, Lynda
23
Mar
The Death Letter Project
- By Helen
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Tina Fiveash is a Sydney based, award winning photo artist and PhD student whose research project started back in 2014 titled The Death Letter Project. The purpose is to understand people’s views about Death; their experience and what they believe happens after death. I was fortunate to be included as one of the people Tina asked because of the shroud work that I do. See the link below to read what I have experienced with the death of my loved ones, and a link to Tina’s Death Letter Project.
https://www.deathletterprojects.com/helen-dunne
https://www.deathletterprojects.com/about
07
Oct
Rookwood Open Day
- By Helen
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Invited to present a shroud workshop at the Rookwood Cemetery Open Day on 24 September, I happily agreed but then had to think about how to present a workshop about shroud making to an unknown quantity of people and what could I teach them in an hour?
The day was set up like a fair, with various stalls, musicians, attractions like horse and cart rides, vintage funeral cars, drumming groups, food stalls and face painting. The allocated area for the workshop was an open space with a cover and the sound of a generator pumping out a lot of noise. It was overwhelming at first but not put off as to how I would fit in with the unexpected environment I found myself to be in.
01
Jun
Disconnected
- By Helen
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Since the Compass program that screened 20 March this year, some of you may have left comments on my website.
Unfortunately, I didn’t receive them due to an issue with the site. Firstly, my apologies that you were left hanging. The problem has been fixed, so I am told, so please, if there was something you would like to have shared, please send it again.
Communication is the thread that binds lives and experiences. I would love you to keep binding. Thank you.
01
May
Where on the road to ‘?’
- By Helen
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It would be strange for me to share anything from the Daily Telegraph. The reason I’m doing so with this article because it draws attention to the change in our death ceremonies. There is increased awareness of our freedom to make funerals whatever we wish them to be with nobody’s rules required but our own.
Whilst we can make a ceremony whatever we want it to be, as the article demonstrates, the highly styled antics on the horizon that turn ceremonies into a societal spectacle rather than a personal response to loss of a life concerns me. Link to article below.
24
Apr
Sydney Writers Festival 2015
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Look who I had the joy of meeting during her book tour of When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes! Hosted at the Casula Powerhouse, an author talk with the amazing Caitlin Doughty, as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, I was thrilled to hear Caitlin interviewed at both the Casula Powerhouse and Walsh Bay venues. Both interviews revealed much about her work and her spirited personality. If you’ve not read her book already, I urge you to do so. It’s an informative and entertaining read.
24
Apr
Compass program 20 March 2016
- By Helen
- One Comment
The Executive Producer of ABC TV program, Compass, contacted me when she read about the work that I do with Shroud Memento. That program went to air on Sunday March 20th 2016. For copyright reasons I’m unable to post the video of the program on my site but whilst the link is still available, you can watch it by clicking on the following titled Melany’s Remedy Series 30 Episode 4.
By watching this program you will have a better insight into the work that I do with Shroud Memento.
07
Feb
Wrapped
- By Helen
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Image: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrapped Trees, Foundation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997-98, photo Wolfgang Volz © 1998 Christo
Christo Javacheff, the Bulgarian artist known simply as Christo, has always intrigued me since I first saw cliff faces and large buildings wrapped in silk cloth, and fields ribboned with bright yellow or brilliant white bands running for kilometres, his unique concept defying an art genre.
Recently I came upon a book about his life and his artistic collaborator and wife, Jeanne-Claude, titled Christo and Jeanne-Claude – A Biography by Burt Chernow (Wolfgang Volz 2002). It was interesting, to me, how Chernow writes about the viewer’s response to the Christo’s earlier works of small wrapped objects, having no choice but to change the perspective of what viewers of the works saw not knowing exactly what to think. Chernow says, “The act of shrouding can set routine perception askew.” (p.82)
18
Oct
A Fallow Year
- By Helen
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For various reasons this year has been one of retreat for me. I’ve spent days wondering about Shroud Memento; about what to do, how to proceed, and when I pondered, so much thought surfaced that I didn’t know where to start so I poured it all back into where it came from; the timing wasn’t right. Last week I came across Canadian poet and performer, Tanya Davis’ post, about her leave of absence from her work and she too found it difficult to express what had been happening for her. Tanya used the writing of David Whyte to express her status. I saw Whyte’s words as a gift for they describe the essence of what has been happening in my life. Whyte’s words may offer clarity and insight into your own life
“Hiding is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light. Even hiding the truth from ourselves can be a way to come to what we need in our own necessary time. Hiding is one of the brilliant and virtuoso practices of almost every part of the natural world: the protective quiet of an icy northern landscape, the held bud of a future summer rose, the snow bound internal pulse of the hibernating bear.