Dying Matters Week 2025 in Hawke’s Bay was brought you by a team of local people passionate about improving ‘death literacy’ and fostering compassionate community.  The organising committee was drawn together by Alysha Macaulay, Celebrant, Death Doula and host of the Grief on Various Degrees podcast and includes Cranford Hospice staff, youth workers, grief therapists and more.

This was an inaugural event for Hawkes Bay centred in Hastings, with the aim of offering a range of opportunities to broaden the discourse around death, learn from local expertise, find support and information for end-of-life planning, and navigate grief or loss.

The programme included: hands-on workshops and presentations from experts in end-of-life, grief and death-care, resources and information from local businesses, crematorium open days, curated collections of books on grief and dying, online events and podcasts, art and theatre, poetry and storytelling, DIY Funeral Workshops, Death Cafes and panel discussions.

For more information about Dying Matters Week events in Hawke’s Bay, please email Alysha or Stephanie.