The Wicking Trust's Bringing Death Back into Life Program: Strengthening death literacy, end-of-life care and grief support.

A growing network of community-led projects is helping Australians rethink how we approach death, dying and grief.

Across Australia, the way we approach death, dying and grief is beginning to change.

People and communities are finding new ways to talk about death, prepare for the end-of-life and support one another through it. These local efforts are making death easier to talk about and end-of-life care more personal.

Through the Wicking Trust’s Bringing Death Back into Life initiative, communities are putting these ideas into practice, testing new approaches to end-of-life care, death literacy and grief support.

In Busselton, Western Australia, Busselton Hospice Care has built a community-based model where volunteers support people to live and die well, while families receive practical and emotional care and conversations about end of life begin early, rather than in a crisis.

The Australian Home Funeral Alliance is taking another approach, building death literacy through hands-on workshops that help people understand what happens after death, explore their choices and consider how families and communities can play a more active role.

Over in Melbourne, filmmaker Jackson Hyatt and Rosehaven Hospice are documenting community hospice care, shining a light on models that many Australians may not know exist.

Other projects are focusing on communities whose experiences of death, dying and grief can be overlooked. GRAI (GLBTI Rights in Ageing) is helping older LGBTI people build knowledge and confidence around death and dying, while the Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia is co-designing resources with culturally diverse communities to make these conversations more accessible and meaningful.

 

“Together, these efforts are showing what a more compassionate way of approaching death, dying and grief could look like.”

 

A First Nations-led project in the Murrumbidgee region is taking a different but equally important approach, listening to communities and supporting culturally safe conversations and care that honours connection to family and Country.

There is also a focus on the practical realities people face at the end of life. Tender Funerals is improving access to affordable, community-led funeral care in remote areas, while a regional veterinary outreach service is helping people include their pets in end-of-life planning, recognising the important role these relationships play. Other initiatives are developing simple tools to help people organise their affairs and start conversations that might otherwise never happen.

What connects these efforts is a recognition that the current system can be difficult to navigate and fragmented, while not always reflecting what matters most to people and their families.

These projects show what can happen when people are supported earlier, communities are involved and services work together. While this kind of change takes time and depends on trust, relationships and learning what works in different places and cultures, there is already clear momentum. New partnerships are forming, practical resources are being created and shared, and people are starting to talk more openly about what a good end of life could look like.

This work highlights the role philanthropy can play in supporting change that is still taking shape. By backing early ideas, local solutions and the relationships that allow communities to test and refine new approaches, philanthropy can help create the conditions for broader change without imposing a single model.

What is emerging is a network of approaches shaped by place, culture and community. Together, these efforts are showing what a more compassionate way of approaching death, dying and grief could look like.

The Wicking Trust has committed more than $7 million over three years to this work, backing a quiet shift towards a more connected approach to death, dying and grief.

This short film captures the power of collaboration in action and the collective effort to drive meaningful change.

 Find out more about Equity Trustees Philanthropy services and The J.O. & J.R. Wicking Trust

Bringing death back into life – a collaborative networking event.