To date, 74,024 people of those killed in both Gaza and the West Bank are officially listed. (June 1st, 2026)
The collective Grieving Doves has — together with participants of their workshops — written over 27,000 of those names on pieces of fabric and then sewn them onto wings.
The process is deeply reflective and calls our imagination to the lost lives behind the names and their unfinished life stories. It is harrowing but profoundly necessary that we both mourn and remember the dead in a stand against the ongoing and traumatic destruction of lives.
Grieving Doves have been facilitating weekly name-writing sessions for more than 30 months, often receiving requests from family members to write the names of their lost ones. The names are carried on the wings into actions and demos, in grief, protesting the genocide in Gaza, for all human lives being precious and human rights being universal.
Truth Mandala by Nightwashers
The workshop will be accompanied by a Truth Mandala, a communal practice of witnessing, and remembering that we do not grieve alone. Inspired by the living legacy of Joanna Macy and her practice of The Work That Reconnects, we gather in circle for this ritual, where grief is welcomed in all its shapes, textures and colors.
At the center of the circle, grief becomes something we can lay down, witness, and honour together. Words may be spoken — in any language — or silence may be preferred. Nothing is mandatory. Presence and listening are participation. Held by ritual form, we will allow sorrow, anger, fear, feelings of emptiness and all the currents that move through grief to be seen and heard without fixing or resolving.
To bring the ritual to a close, we’ll allow some quiet time for reflection and integration through a soundbath. Before parting, we’ll get to share some tea and cake.
The Truth Mandala is held by the collective Nightwashers: tending to the spiral currents of loss and renewal. Erin Lang, Shannon Turner and Amélie Vrla are a trio offering creative practices that explore death and transitional experiences. Inspired by mythic midnight washerwomen, they gather at the thresholds of life, opening space for loss and grief to be witnessed and potentially transformed through collective making, writing, ritual, sound, music, and reflection.
