A cup of tea and a chat about death are coming to a riverside Footscray cafe.
Writer Peta Murray is organising a ‘Death Cafe’ at Happy River Cafe, inviting people to talk about the taboo topic.
Ms Murray said there was no set objective or guest speaker, simply a chance for people to talk about the subject of death.
“I think a lot of people would like to talk about this and sometimes it’s easier to start a conversation like this with people you don’t know,” she said. “We need to build our communal death literacy; there’s a misconception that it’s morbid and taboo.”
Ms Murray is co-founder and creative director of the not-for-profit arts-and-health organisation, The Groundswell Project.
The Death Cafe coincides with the organisation’s “Dying to Know Day”, an annual day of action dedicated to bringing to life conversations and community actions around death, dying and bereavement.
Ms Murray said the Death Cafe movement aligned closely with the organisation’s goals.
“It has no agenda. It’s as simple as it sounds: coffee, tea, cake and conversation,” she said.
Ms Murray said the type of conversation would depend on what people wished to talk about on the day.
The Death Cafe will be held from 2pm on Saturday, August 8.
Details: deathcafe.com/deathcafe/2252
