Dear Members and New Members,
A happy 2009 to all our existing members, and a big welcome to those of
you who recently joined. If you have not opened the attachment to this e-mail,
please leave it until after you have read this letter!
Whilst it's still early days in the development of natural burial
in Australia, and it's a challenging time, it is also exciting to be part
of this important push for greener funeral practices, and the
establishment of Natural Burial Grounds in Australia.
Since our formation in March 2008, we have been defining, and re-defining
the Society's role in this work and recently restructured the Society as a
registered non-profit organisation. The Society is now perfectly positioned to
lobby for, and hold (public or private) land for burial grounds, and to
continue to develop standards and guidelines, establishing it as the peak body
for the emerging 'green' funeral industry in Australia. As many of you will
know, the Society's founding President Kevin
Hartley is an active participant in the funeral industry and
to avoid any perceived conflicts of interest going forward,
he has stepped aside as President
of the Society in favour of one of the original founding members, Dr Vanda
Rounsefell, an eco-sustainability consultant who has been working independently on this concept since
2004.
Many of you who have recently joined have responded to re-runs
of the July 2008 Background Briefing story (on Radio National), and over
the past months, both new and existing members outside South Australia have
e-mailed asking how you can access natural burial services in your state or
area. We feel we may have developed a solution to this challenge and would be
interested in your feedback. The idea is a relatively simple one, but
before we discuss it, here's a little background that should make it all
clearer.
A couple of years ago, a non-profit group that founded a natural burial ground in
Wellington (New Zealand) commissioned a survey to determine how many people
would be interested in a natural burial. The results indicated that between
30% and 40% of respondents would be interested, an incredibly high proportion.
They questioned about 800 people, so the survey results can be considered
'statistically significant': a fancy way to say they are reliable. However the
positive response was so high that they ran the survey a second time to be
sure, and you guessed it, achieved an almost identical result.
Of course the ability for a person to choose a natural burial is reliant
upon there being a natural burial ground in their area, so you might
reasonably assume that in a place where there are many burial grounds that
natural burial would be commonplace. Let's take a look at what's happened in
the UK where the first natural burial ground was established in 1993.
Since that time more than 160 more have come into operation, with another 30
or 40 being developed right now. Given all this activity, you would be
forgiven for assuming that huge numbers of people are using these facilities,
but this is not so. The reality is that the uptake remains relatively
low, only about 3% of all funerals. So what's the problem, why aren't the
other (approximately) 30% of people who want to be burial naturally doing
so?
Extensive consultation with burial ground operators in the UK suggests
that the main reason is lack of support by the funeral industry as a whole.
The funeral industry is conservative and resistant to change. Quite simply
there are hardly any (if any at all) mainstream funeral directors who have
bothered to take the time to develop ways to professionally present natural
burials. A few have now began to offer some form of natural burial
service alongside their traditional services, but none specialise in natural
burials. Shroud burials are just about unheard of and no one actively
promotes the idea.
When a death occurs, generally the first call is to the funeral director,
and because people find themselves in unfamiliar territory, they rely heavily on the funeral director’s
advice and guidance. This is an
emotionally charged time, and one where all the important decisions need to be
made within a matter of days. Because a funeral can only ever happen once,
there is an unspoken requirement that everything be absolutely right. So
if the subject of a natural burial is raised by an interested relative, unless
the idea is immediately and wholeheartedly supported by the funeral director,
and unless the deceased wishes are already
clearly stated, doubts and fears creep in, and in most cases
families are easily swayed (often
deliberately by the funeral director) back to the 'tried and proven' (easy and
profitable) traditional funeral.
Our Society is determined to see that natural burial is solidly
established and that the mistakes made in the UK are not repeated
here. It is a sad fact that the full
potential of natural burial may now never be achieved in
the UK because the 'die has been cast', so to speak. Burial ground
operators naïvely assumed that funeral directors would promote the idea to
families in need, and they have not done so. Some people here, (particularly people in the funeral and
cemetery/crematorium industry), are
already pointing to the low uptake in the UK and
saying, 'well, natural burial is another option but as you can see not
many people really want it'. Of course this is simply not true!
Now even though we may not have hundreds of burial grounds in Australia,
and let's be realistic, it is going to take some years before we do, there is
no reason why we should not be pushing the funeral industry to 'green up'
their act now. We are still fighting for land for the first genuine natural
burial ground here in Adelaide but that
hasn't stopped families choosing professionally presented natural shroud
burials in nice little hills cemeteries - it's not absolutely perfect but it's
a big step in the right direction.
Which brings us to the idea of how to help members interstate to get
the funerals you want.
Firstly, if you are going to have a green funeral you need a genuine
bio-degradable alternative to traditional coffins, something that the vast
majority of funeral directors in Australia simply do not have (nor
want to have). But what if you could buy your own shroud by mail order? Now the funeral director can
no longer use this as an objection to helping you. Next, what if you knew as
much (or more) about natural burials as he did? You would be in a powerful
position to have a conversation with him (or his competitor) that would
not only ensure that you get the greenest funeral possible, but that you
strongly introduce the idea to a member of the funeral industry and in so
doing you would be helping to ensure the positive growth of natural burial in
Australia.
We are working to complete all the research necessary to prepare a
detailed information kit (with state specific information) that we could
provide for members for a nominal cost / donation. Now imagine the
conversation you could have with your local funeral director once you are
fully informed of what is and is not possible, and armed with the knowledge
that you can purchase a shroud.
Please let us know if you would be interested in such an information
kit?
Best Regards
Dr Vanda Rounsefell
President
The Natural Earth Burial Society of
Australia