IT'S OKAY TO DECAY
In his last year, our dad changed his mind about what he wanted to happen to his body when he died. He ended up choosing a woodland burial. Would you consider an eco-ending when you die?
Hello there,
Firstly, a thousand thank yous for subscribing to The Mortal Portal. Your support means a lot to us - us being KV & LV - the DEAD GOOD Vigurs sisters.
* Vigurs rhymes with tigers - no Vigggggggggers-ing, please and thank you *
Today it’s KV here (the slightly older Vigurs sister). It’s my first time in our new virtual community space, The Mortal Portal. We’re still exploring and experimenting with all things Substack and bespoke methods of communication, but this feels like the right move for us as we begin Year Two of our ECO-DEATH-ART social enterprise. Hopefully, it’ll be a goodbye of sorts to the weird fickle fancy of the Meta algorithm.
We’re not getting rid of our @DeadGoodLegacies accounts on Insta and FB just yet, but we’ll be switching up our approach in the coming months to spend more of our energies engaging with you in this new space. We’ll be easily reachable through the Substack app in the future.
Me and LV will likely collaborate on creating each piece for The Mortal Portal. Melding our minds and delivering the outcome directly to you. We’re still working out what our communications rhythm will be. I think we’ll start monthly over the summer months, and then move to once a week from autumn.
We’re also still working out our offerings for our free and paid subscribers to The Mortal Portal. We’ll let you know when this is a bit clearer.
By the way, LV said I can’t call The Mortal Portal a newsletter. Maybe we could consider it a mortality muse-letter?
No? Too much?
We’re very much open to community participation on such matters, so do let us know how you’d like to refer to The Mortal Portal, if indeed ‘newsletter’ has been given the big LV veto. What is it? An e-zine? I might have to veto e-zine…
*KV whispers mortality muse-letter into the ether*
Anywayyyyyyy, while we’re here, can we talk a little bit about eco-friendly funerals, specifically the physical send-off part?
How do you feel about eco-endings?
Is it okay to decay?
Me and LV are coming towards the end of our community arts commission at Seventeen Nineteen where we’ve been hosting a series of creative community conversations about death, dying and grief with people in Sunderland. One of these conversations took place at an inspiring community garden where we explored the concept of death as a natural part of life, and looked at the choices we can make so that our deaths won’t cost the earth (see the original session flyer below).
When we use the term eco-ending, we’re thinking about the options that are available for low-carbon funerals in the UK, and we’ve spent time this year learning about the environmental impact of different funeral practices. This has been necessary so that we can unpick for ourselves some of the unhelpful greenwashing that is out there in the UK funeral landscape. At present our understanding is that natural burial - a.k.a. green burial or woodland burial - creates the lowest operational carbon emissions in terms of physical send-off (we’ll broach the embodied carbon costs of funeral practices in a future piece, promise).
By way of comparison, the average natural burial creates about 11 kgs of C02 emissions, whereas just one flame cremation alone can create upto 400 kgs of C02 emissions. That is a big difference in terms of carbon costs and environmental impact.
In terms of a definition of green burials, a UK government publication on natural burial (2009: 1) describes the practice as:
“the burial of human remains where the burial area creates habitat for wildlife or preserves existing habitats (woodland, species rich meadows, orchards, etc), sustainably managed farmland, in-situ or adjacent aquatic habitats or improves and creates new habitats which are rich in wildlife (flora and fauna). Where a funeral precedes such burial, it would typically seek to minimise environmental impact. The terms ‘green burial’, ‘green funeral’ and ‘woodland burial’ are also sometimes used. Interest in natural death has grown as people have become increasingly concerned about the emissions and fuel-use associated with cremation, the use of stone for memorials (often shipped considerable distances from overseas quarries), or the use of formaldehyde for embalming, which has an adverse effect upon groundwater.”
In 2024 there are over 300 natural burial grounds in the UK. We’ve visited quite a few and haven’t ruled out a more comprehensive DEAD GOOD natural burial roadtrip in the future, although we’ll have to work out a sustainable travel plan first!! It just so happens that LV is currently looking into trading in her old yellow diesel wagon for a petite electric car, so that’s a start.
I wonder how many natural burial grounds you’ve got near you? If you don’t know off the top of your head, we strongly encourage you to do a web search, you might be surprised by the results.
I’ve got four natural burial sites near to where I live in the North East. I’ve visited all of them and was surprised by how different each site is in terms of landscape and vibe (again, maybe the topic of a future piece for The Mortal Portal):
Seven Penny Meadow (County Durham)
Blue House Woodland Burials (County Durham)
Belsay Woodland Burials (Northumberland) - did anyone see the full page advertisement in the July edition of Living North magazine? Full marks, Belsay!
Northumberland Woodland Burials (Northumberland)
And there are also natural burial areas within municipal cemeteries run by local councils at places like Seaham Cemetery and Durham Cemetery Woodland Burials, though the marketing of these municipal natural burial areas are very, very low key at present.
Our dad, Peter, chose a woodland burial section within a local authority cemetery in our hometown of Stoke-on-Trent (see image below taken by me at his funeral in March 2022).
After receiving a terminal bowel cancer diagnosis in January 2021, he wanted to talk about his funeral ideas and options a lot. Below is a section from the funeral ceremony I wrote for him, outling his decision-making:
“Dad always said he wanted to be cremated, but last year he changed his mind, preferring instead to opt for a more environmentally-friendly woodland burial. He liked that there would be no gravestone, and that he would become part of an existing woodland eco-system, filled with wildlife, trees and plants. He was also clear that he wanted to be buried at Carmountside. This was because when he was Director of Leisure and Cultural Services at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Carmountside Crematorium – which he drolly described as the ‘ultimate leisure service’ – fell under his remit, even winning Crematorium of the Year in 1999.”
Could natural burial be for you? Do you have any questions or worries about it?
We asked our community on Insta and FB the same question recently and received an overwhelmingly positive response. A couple of examples below:
“I love the idea that as my body decomposes I am giving life to a host of species in the ground, which in turn nourishes and gives life to nature above the ground. I don’t want burning to dead grey ash.” Yuli
“A natural burial in wicker in a wild landscape does appeal - where my remains go back into the land and the circle of life continues.” Beyond the Byre Jewellery
So what do you think? Shall we all start up a little rotters club? An eco-death gang?
ROTTERZ R US 4 EVA
I feel a new eco-sticker design coming on…
What are we up to this month?
How can you engage with us?
OPEN DAY at Seven Penny Meadow natural burial ground (County Durham, UK)
Saturday 20th July 10:00-15:00
Families and dogs on leads welcome.
Guided walks, workshops, talks and a wild flower treasure hunt.
Free refreshments.
There may be an appearance from Ziggy the inflatable deathy unicorn!
Until Sunday 21st July our IT’S OKAY TO DECAY screenprints are on display at Carnival House and Kitchen in Southwick, Sunderland (UK), as part of the Sunderland Art and Culture Trail.
We have four large framed original screenprints available to buy on our website.
Each one is unique.
LV designed and hand-pulled each print. Then she collaged a different array of hand-drawn insects, mushrooms and algae onto each print.
KV had the prints professionally mounted and framed and then wrote a secret note on the back of each framed print.
See our IT’S OKAY TO DECAY contribution to the outdoor exhibition by the STRIKE women+ public art collective exhibition outside the Bill Bryson Library at Durham University. On show until September 2024. Sneaky peek below.
Maybe buy one of our My Farewell funeral planning zines from our website and use it to draft your own eco-ending wishes and start the conversation with your friends and family?
