Invitation to honour the lives lost in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon through two rituals: a name writing ritual from 2 to 6pm upstairs, and a grief ritual from 3:30 to 5pm downstairs.
Name writing ritual – 2 to 6pm – upstairs room – drop-in
To date, 75,036 people of those killed in both Gaza and the West Bank are officially listed. Through open public invitation, the collective Grieving Doves has written over 28,000 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 35 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, as all human lives are precious and human rights are universal.
Grief ritual – 3:30 to 5pm – downstairs room – closed container
Alongside the name writing ritual where people are welcome to come and go from 2 to 6pm, a Truth Mandala grief ritual will be taking place in the downstairs room. This ritual is a closed container: we’ll begin at 3pm and end the circle at 4:30pm. Because of the nature of this ritual, we won’t be able to let people in once we’ve started.
The Truth Mandala grief ritual is a communal practice of witnessing and remembering that we do not grieve alone. It is inspired by the living legacy of Joanna Macy and her practice of The Work That Reconnects. 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. We will allow sorrow, anger, fear, feelings of emptiness and all the currents that move through grief to be seen and heard in confidentiality, without fixing or resolving.
To bring the ritual to a close, we’ll allow some quiet time for reflection and integration. 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.
