Saturday 14th of June 2025
Natural Endings
Former Mail Sorting Office, Rise Lane, Todmorden, OL14 7AA
This is an in-person event (not online)
Funerals and rituals can be powerful in supporting bereaved people to begin to adjust to a new way of living with loss and love. They are often inhabiting a liminal place, so are amazing to work with due to their openness in their personal meaning making processes. This creative one-day conference explores how we can co-create meaningful events that support and build upon this meaning making. With an emphasis on how we can help individuals, families and communities to tell their people’s stories with more than just words. We look at the importance of participation and how to craft connecting events. As well as exploring the amazing array of what is possible, we will also look at using ritual in more limiting spaces.
We are delighted to have some amazing speakers and workshop leaders including: Alexandra Derwen, Isabel Russo, Rosalie Kuyvenhoven (Rituals Today), Dr Katy Vigurs & Lindsey Vigurs (Dead Good Legacies), Ellie Harrison (Grief Series/Polite Rebellion) and Jenny Gaskell. Art work by Dylan Collard.
Talks and workshops, a creative making activity, art exhibition, and chances to connect with like-minded people that work in funeral world or are just curious. There are also optional extras of a shared meal social in the evening and tie in additional full day workshops the following day.
Natural Endings is totally accessible to people with limited mobility. We don’t have any steps and we have an accessible toilet. If you need a parking space please email us to reserve one. We also have a hearing loop in the hall for those with hearing loss which is available for the keynote, one of the workshops and the plenary session. If you wear hearing aids or a cochlear implant it is probably best to book the workshop that’s in our hall rather than one of the other venues. Please email us to let us know you would prefer the workshop that will be in the hall (tbd which one that will be).
Note: We are very close to Todmorden train station but it has no access for getting off the station for wheelchair users coming from the Manchester direction.
If you’re booking this conference you probably know about what Natural Endings do. If not please read about us or check our Instagram.
Our hall/ceremony space is in a beautiful building built one hundred and one years ago by the Royal Mail as a mail sorting office.
We’re situated in the heart of Todmorden next to the train station. Todmorden is next to Hebden Bridge, and on the Manchester to Leeds train line.
Todmorden is nestled at the convergence of three valleys, which provides stunning scenery for walking, wild swimming and cycling. We also have a thriving arts scene. So there’s lots to do if you’re coming from a distance and want to make a weekend of it.
Alexandra Derwen
From the Mundane to the Cosmic
Key Considerations for Participatory Ceremony
Our keynote speaker for our gathering on 14th June is Alexandra Derwen, poet, ceremonialist, death and grief doula, author of the Lost Rites trilogy, founder and lead facilitator for the Sacred Circle Training Co CIC which offers community education and development in the field of Death, dying and grief. Alexandra is a compelling and powerful speaker, a story-weaver and wordsmith who brings alive the connections between death and loss at a personal level to the collective and systemic. In the Lost Rites books, Alexandra sets out a contemporary framework for remembering and reclaiming the ancient ways for our modern times including a really deep dive into the theory of ceremony and ritual for death and dying, into collective mourning practices and the ancestral landscape, that is to say what is “unseen” in the ceremonial context. Alexandra’s talk will focus on the key considerations for participatory ceremony from the practical and mundane to the cosmic.
You can find out more about Alexandra’s work at www.journeywithdeath.com and www.derwenroots.wales also on instagram @journeywithdeath
(Alexandra uses they/them pronouns)
Dylan Collard
Collections
Exhibition and conversation
Dylan started to make portraits of collections of objects of people who have died, some that maybe can not be kept, but that together show the essence of a life. It’s often the mundane things: paint splattered shoes, 100 coloured buttons, 36 metal nuts, some rusty saws, a darned sock that together can be more interesting than an expensive family heirloom.
There are limited places for each workshop, please specify which workshop you prefer when buying your ticket. Your preferred place is not guaranteed, it will be on a first come fist served basis.
Rosalie Kuyvenhoven of Rituals Today
Embodied rituals: enhancing funeral ceremonies with movement and sensory experiences
Summary
Since ancient times, dance and the engagement of all our senses have been an integral part of rituals and ceremonies. In modern, non-religious ceremonies, however, the focus often leans on words and music. This creates an exciting opportunity to reintroduce elements that help bring the participants in contact with their entire being: mind, body and spirit. By doing so, we can foster deeper connections with ourselves, strengthen bonds within the community, and even open the door to transformation and healing.
In this workshop we explore ways to incorporate movement and sensory experiences into funeral ceremonies. Inspired by real ceremony examples, we’ll uncover how engaging our bodies and senses can enhance the experience of these meaningful moments. Together, we will discover creative ritual activities for funerals.
Bio
Rosalie Kuyvenhoven is an award-winning celebrant, speaker, Death Cafe host and tutor at The Celebrant Collective. Based in London, she collaborates with clients from all over the world to create personal and meaningful ceremonies.
Rosalie loves to explore creative and innovative rituals to express grief and honour a life in a way that reflects the person who has died as well as the wishes and needs of the living.
Rosalie Kuyvenhoven uses she/her pronouns
+44 (0)7543 063286
Dr Katy Vigurs & Lindsey Vigurs of DeadGood
Treasure hunts as DIY remembrance rituals
Summary
Who says DIY acts of remembrance can’t be playful and fun?
When our dad died, we turned a small hand carved stone sculpture (that he had made) into a public memorial geocache for others to seek and find.
We hid the sculpture in the Peak District at the summit of a hilly walk that Dad loved to do.
It gives us such a thrill when a member of the public finds the stone geocache hidden in the rooty nook of a tree and then leaves us a lovely comment in the digital guest book (sometimes they take a selfie with it too).
We love that people get to read Dad’s story, walk in his footsteps, and find something he designed and made.
What would you hide for others to find?
We’ll explore a range of possibilities of ‘treasure hunts as memorial’ during the workshop and you’ll have the opportunity to design your own.
Bio
DEAD GOOD is an arts-based social enterprise that aims to grow public imagination and active participation around all things death and dying.
We rashly quit our jobs and set up DEAD GOOD after supporting our dad to creatively reflect on his life and to plan his eco-friendly funeral & woodland burial, including weaving his willow coffin together as a family. Dad said it was the best year of his life.
Our dad was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in January 2021 and died a year later. In many ways it was an example of a privileged and ‘good’ death in that his death was both expected, supported, relatively comfortable and there were few financial constraints. We were grateful that we had time to talk, plan and prepare for both his death and funeral. We know this is not possible for everyone and that motivates the work we do now as DEAD GOOD.
We are a values-led organisation and have expertise in design and illustration, social research, ceremony design & curation, community learning, participatory arts, digital comms, creative producing & consultancy, and lived experience of death and grief.
You can subscribe to our regular mortality muse-letter – The Mortal Portal – here: https://deadgood.substack.com/
Website: www.deadgood.org
Email: hello@deadgood.org
Social media: @DeadGoodLegacies
(Katy and Lindsey both use she/her pronouns)
Jenny Gaskell
Talking to kids about death
Summary
In this workshop, Jenny Gaskell will discuss ‘How to Look After a Grieving Elephant (and other social animals)’ a participatory art project created with young people. The project aims to help children talk about death and bereavement, whilst having fun.
In the workshop we will discuss the reasons that adults find it difficult to talk to children about death and dying, and share some ideas about how we might approach this subject with care and confidence. Visitors can also engage with the art project and take part in a short activity.
Bio
Jenny Gaskell is an artist who makes performances and participatory art.
Jenny’s work involves writing, hosting, listening, making audio, designing rituals and thinking about how to hold various types of grief. It is often intimate, funny, tender, conceptual, confessional and gives reverence to everyday interactions. Jenny is also a trained funeral celebrant. jennygaskell.com
Credit: ‘How to Look After a Grieving Elephant (and other social animals)’ was designed by Jenny Gaskell, produced by Wonder Arts and Heart of Glass, with Willowbrook Hospice and Child Bereavement UK. Supported by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme and National Lottery Community Fund.
Link to the project: heartofglass.org.uk/projects-and-events/projects/how-to-look-after-a-grieving-elephant-and-other-social-animals
(Jenny Gaskell uses she/her pronouns)
No Elephants in the room, no skeletons in the closet
Summary
Ellie Harrison will talk about her thirteen year body of participatory art projects The Grief Series, the importance of third spaces and inclusive rituals. From impersonating Leonardo Di Caprio to making a funfair about anger called The Unfair, the Grief Series uses bold aesthetics and playful strategies engaging over fifty thousand people. There will be a chance to ask questions, have a chat and see Ellie’s illustrated funeral planning resource The Crossing, as well as some Grief Series resources to take away.
Bio
Ellie Harrison is a disabled performance maker and artist living in Leeds and working internationally. She is artistic director of Polite Rebellion and the acclaimed Grief Series, a sequence of seven arts projects that open up spaces to talk about bereavement and end of life. She creates a range of solo and collaborative devised performance and installation work for studios, galleries, found and public spaces. Participation is at the heart of all of her work as a performer, facilitator and mentor. Ellie specialises in embedding care and ethical participation both in her own practice and offering consultancy to other artists and organisations. Her work is often characterised by a playful and provocative approach to difficult topics, encouraging audiences to make decisions and participate.
Ellie lectures on her practice, writing articles, giving talks, performances and workshops at universities internationally including University of the arts London, Sorbonne Paris and UAM Mexico City.
In 2015 Ellie won A Love Arts award for her work on The Grief Series. Working on The Grief Series has seen Ellie travel to Prague, Paris, Mexico City, Sibiu Festival and Timisoara Romania. The Projects in The Grief Series have gained national press attention. She has been invited to speak on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour and has been included in Lynn Gardner’s theatre pick of the year.
(Ellie Harrison uses she/her pronouns)
Isabel Russo
In Conversation with Alexandra Derwen, plus Q&A
Drawing on her experience of creating and holding the Liminal Time workshops, Isabel Russo will be in conversation with Alexandra Derwen about the period of time spanning from just before the death of someone you love occurs – to the days after the funeral has taken place. A period of time in England of about 4 weeks, that often goes without acknowledgement. A time that can be overwhelming and chaotic, yet also powerfully connected and transformative.
From the perspective of a ritualist, and drawing on Alexandra’s depth of experience as a companion of the dying, dead and bereaved, Isabel and Alexandra will invite the room to take part in a conversation that uncovers the threshold moments that so often go unnoticed. In those four weeks of Liminal Time there are so many endings and beginnings. Be they as subtle as the last breath of your beloved person, and the first breath you take without them, or as significant as when the body leaves their home for the last time; what if we were able to give each of these moments true recognition. No matter how simple. To honour these moments as necessary punctuation marks that tell the unique story of death, loss and love, a story that can thaw our numbness and reboot our broken hearts.
Whatever our journey through the weeks of Liminal Time, we will likely travel them multiple times in our lives, both professionally and personally. This conversation will be a fascinating and empowering uncovering of the moments when death speaks to life. And how we can mark those moments to ensure we truly hear what is being said.
Bio: Isabel has taken over 600 funerals, including those of Victoria Wood, Terry Jones and Doris Lessing. She was Head of Ceremonies at Humanists UK for 7 years and has been Executive Director of The Good Funeral Guide for 8 years. With nearly two decades of experience in ceremonies, end-of-life work, and workshop facilitation, Isabel’s perspective is both deeply human and professionally honed. She’ll be talking about the contemporary ritual and participatory events around loss.
Isabel has also devised a full day Liminal Time workshop the day after the conference, Sunday 15th June, tickets can be bought directly from her. See link at the bottom of the page.
(Isabel uses she/her pronouns)
Social from 7pm (including food)
Optional, please buy the additional ticket for this if you wish to attend.
Friday 13th of June:
On Friday Rachel Hawthorn is offering a full day workshop entitled “Shrouds: rituals of making and wrapping”. For details please look here:
https://www.rachelhawthorn.co.uk/events/shrouds-rituals-of-making-and-wrapping
