Compassionate Culture Network: Donegal
From November 2021 we’ve hosted a series of open sessions in Buncrana that explore grief, death, dying and loss through creativity. It is part of a national project by Irish Hospice Foundation called Compassionate Culture Network.
We drank tea, talked, listened, cried, laughed, made handmade paper, lumen prints, cyanotypes, stone wrapping, collage, paper weaving, writing and book binding. Through conversations with participants we began working on designing and producing a printed Grief Journal. This was both a way to leave a legacy and to give participants a way of concluding the project.
The idea of the Grief Journal was to compile useful tools for coping with grief in the widest sense. During the final sessions in 2022 we worked with the group to decide what the Grief Journal could be. We collated pages designed by individuals that share activities, quotes, images, reflections and other suggestions that could help someone process loss. Together we created a book that people can draw and write in, add images to and keep with them as they grieve.
Books by Keri Smith, Meera Lee Patel, Maria Kalman served as inspiration for the publication and the approach. While we continued working together in person we also acknowledged the many friends and colleagues who are aware of the project through our online platforms. An invitation was extended to our virtual participants to submit a page: something inspiring and a space for the owner of the book to think, act, reflect or make.
We dedicated the book to all who participated and contributed and also to our colleague Harry Kerr.
