Suggested Outline for Grief Week Ceremony

Music while Gathering

• Recorded or live music can enhance the gathering time prior to the ceremony.
• Given the diverse range of belief systems within the Australian community, appropriate secular music may be preferable to music connected to a specific religious tradition - unless the ceremony is being held in a religious context.

Welcome to those Gathered

• Reference can be made to the diverse backgrounds and experiences of those attending.
• Recognition that each person's life has experienced loss, change, transition and grief.

Acknowledgement of Venue/Space in which Ceremony is Held

• Recognition that the land on which this ceremony is being held was originally owned by our indigenous people.
• That this land, itself, was lost by those people when White settlement occurred.
• Thanks to those hosting us (eg community hall, church, club, organisation, school, etc.)

Purpose of Ceremony

• Recognition of Grief Week.
• Recognition that the group gathered here represents a much wider group of people who also share in the journey of Life which holds within it loss and grief in many and varied forms.
• Recognition that at this very moment, all over Victoria, people are gathered to recall the many changes that Life brings, the many times that loss tramples into our lives causing pain.
• Each person, with their own memories, has also responded to their losses differently. We acknowledge that this is as it should be, and that it reminds us of the precious and unique nature of each and every human being.

Invitation, as a group, to reflect on this as we join together in reading :

Grief - a part of life. (Words from poster)

Remembrance of Losses:

Participants invited to place a sprig of wattle (name where, eg. at flagpole, on altar, at memorial, by statue, etc.) as the group spends a brief time of silent reflection.

Music plays softly

Statement of Remembrance: (guideline only - please construct own words as felt to be suitable for particular group)

We have placed these sprigs of wattle here, at this common place, in recognition of the many changes and transitions that we have dealt with in our lives.

Our entire Nation bears witness to the fact that it is founded on grief. Our indigenous people, our settlers, our migrants and refugees - those whose families have experienced brokenness, our unemployed, our homeless, those who are lonely and who feel unloved. Our whole community holds within its embrace a deep pool of sadness that casts a shadow upon so many lives.

Statement of Gratitude:

We also celebrate and acknowledge the many people, and places, that have given us strength in facing the pain of loss and grief. We are grateful for the many professionals, the support workers, the volunteers, the friends and colleagues who join with families in offering sustenance to our hearts and minds when we have been bowed down with sorrow. We are grateful for the places of beauty in our Nation that bring food to the soul - the mountains, the forests, the creeks, rivers and oceans, the deserts. So often we turn to Nature for respite.

Sending Out:

As we leave this place now to return to our usual activities, may we carry the memory of the wattle and its strength, beauty, and its resilience, within our hearts and minds - and may we ever find opportunities to share this strength with others so that we may all move through grief to growth.

This document offers some ideas for conducting a ceremony. To be inclusive of those attending please encourage individuals to participate in various ways, For example: choosing music, selecting and reading poetry or prose, making a statement on behalf of their organisation, decoration of the venue, etc.