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On
this page
Introduction
to CINDEA
CINDEA
is a Canadian-based organization, which respects
the wisdom of ancient death traditions and encourages
the renewal of older death practices that are
appropriate to our modern-day life. In
the past, communities cared for their own dying
folk; and creatively adapted, that approach to
death is still an option available to us. CINDEA
's perspective is one of a wide range of initiatives
that are drawing our culture into a deeper relationship
with nature and the cycles of life and death —
the modern version of "a good death"
for all involved in it.
We
are committed to the unfolding development of
the wholistic pan-death movement, including the
roles and practices of alternative deathcare. Clarification
of these roles, and what they are called, is in
its infancy — therefore, we have offered
definitions of several alternative deathcare roles,
and we support the networking of various
kinds of end-of-life practitioners. Our
site also provides comprehensive dying and death
resources — some conventional, though mostly
focused on those that are less well-known.
Throughout
the site, you will see the word "pan-death"
frequently used: it is our way of simply saying
"across the whole of the spectrum of dying
and death care" (before, during and after
death). The acronym DWENA (Death-care,
Wholistic, Ecological, and/or Natural Alternatives)
is the umbrella term we use for all practitioners
offering services at any part of the pan-death
journey: it is relatively synonymous with 'community
deathcare'.
We
invite you to read through this site and hope
that you will find what you are looking for. We
welcome your questions, feedback and participation
in refining and promoting this significant mission
— contact
us.
Our
New Online Training Program
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CINDEA
has developed an extended
online training program available across
the country and elsewhere. This training
includes Home Funerals, Greening Death,
Deathing Rites, Children and Death, and
Grief and the Community of Grieving.
Please
check out our new Training (By
My Own Heart and Hand) page
for more
information about the program and
to
enroll.
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Our
first Post-death Directive is a 23-page
fillable PDF and includes fields to write
out your choices/directives for what will
happen to your body and possessions (those
not included in your will) after
your death.
The Post-death Directive covers topics from
— deathcare by a funeral home
to in a home funeral
—
from what you want to wear for 'lying
in honour' to what kind of final
disposition you want
— from who you want to vigil with
your body to who you don't want
— from what items you want in your
casket to where you want your ungifted
posessions to go.
The Table of Contents is on the right.
The
new Post-death Directive costs $22. We
prefer an e-transfer for payment (send to
contact@cindea.ca); but if you don't use
e-transfer, please contact
us for other options.
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New
Blogpage
CINDEA
has just started a new blog
by the teachers and students of
the By My Own
Heart and Hand post-death training program.
Terminology
Clarification
of new terms: After winning the right
to continue to use the term 'death midwife'
in the lower Supreme Court (CMBC
vs MaryMoon), it was lost in
the appeal (CMBC/AGBC
vs MaryMoon).
Although
we are continuing to explore ways to reclaim the
term 'death midwife', we are legally bound (in
BC) to use new terms for the time being. The
terms we are currently using are:
Death
midwifery practitioner
(DMP): someone who is practicing the philosophy
of midwifery applied to deathcare, through the
pan-death continuum.
Pan-death
guide: someone who offers death midwifery
support in a continuum of pre-death (EOL/death
doula role), immediately after death (home funeral
guide role), and funeral/memorial
ceremonies (celebrant role).
For
the most part on this site, 'death midwifery practitioner
' and 'pan-death guide' will be used interchangeably. We
realize that this may be a little confusing. However,
we felt it was important to retain the connection
to 'death midwifery' (philosophy), as well as
have a term that describes 'what they do' (approach
in practice) — as 'death midwife' did both.
Deathing:
we often use this term, instead of 'death and
dying' (which is
out of order chronologically!), to
indicate that we understand the journey to include
all of the process (i.e.
a verb, rather than a noun) between preparing
choices in advance, terminal diagnosis, active
dying, the moment of death, post-deathcare, and
funerals/memorials for the Death Journeyer —
as well as those who care about them.
Disclaimer:
death midwifery practitioners/pan-death guides
are not conventional (birth) midwives
or health professionals, nor are they members
of any of the Colleges of Midwives in Canada
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Be
safe, CINDEA is open for all calls or emails
All blessings!
General
Membership in CINDEA and CAN-ADWEN FB
Changes
to the Society Act now allows us to accept general
members of CINDEA, and we welcome
you to contact
us about becoming a general member.
Membership is $20 per year. We
welcome
those who are generally interested, as well as
DWENA practitioners.
Also
all interested folks are welcome to join the CAN-ADWEN
Facebook group — articles, events, news,
etc. focused on the Canadian development of DWENA/community
deathcare, but including significant articles
and information from elsewhere.
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Navigating
this Site
Further
clarification of the CINDEA site as a whole
can be found at our site
map, which includes full headings of each
page's sections. A further page
on Greening Death is planned for the near future.
A
quick summary of the CINDEA site
is always available on the left menu or through
the
site map,
or you can search
this site for any word or phrase.
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General
Information
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Discussing
"A Family Undertaking"
Brushing
teeth
Closing eyes and mouth
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“By
My Own Heart and Hand"
basics in home funerals workshop
Originally,
CINDEA
and Journeying
Beyond co-sponsor the "By
My Own Heart and Hand —
basics in home funerals" workshops
on the West Coast of BC and on Zoom. Now
BMOHAH has been developed as a new extended
online Home Funeral/Post-deathcare training
program, in which students can begin
the program at any time.
This
new training program has two primary kinds
of students
a) families preparing for a home funeral
b) DWENA/community deathcare practitioners
to better understand post-death care and
issues as it might relate to the experience
of their future client-families, and as
an extra service to offer them
It
includes sections on Home
Funerals, Greening Death, Deathing Rites,
Children and Death, and Grief
and the Community of Grieving.
Although
the program was developed for Canadians
and includes Canadian laws/regulations and
paperwork, most of it is useful for students
from other countries. We will help
non-Canadian students find the legal information
they need in their own country.
See
also "DIY
Funeral Care: Family-directed Post-death
Care and Funerals (often called ‘home
funerals’)", written by the
co-directors of CINDEA
for
the Canadian
Funerals Online website,
or Post-Death
Care at Home as Extended Caregiving,
written by the co-directors of CINDEA
for the Caregiving Matters
website.
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Rolling
body onto stretcher using sheet
Placing
ice blanket to cool body
Maneuvering casket through
hallways
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CINDEA
's "Post-death Care At Home" video
series
CINDEA
has a series of 5 short separate "Post-death
Care At Home" videos on our Post-Death
Care
and Home Funerals page — including Moving
the body; Washing the hair, face and mouth; Washing
the body; Dressing the body, and Closing the eyes
and mouth; and Moving the body into casket, or
Shrouding the body. We
also have an updated PDF
on Post-death Physical Care (available for
download just below the video thumbnails) —
which includes detailed step-by-step instructions
on
'how to', as well as a list of supplies required.
These
videos and instructions — as well as the
General
Timeline PDF (including legal paperwork
required) — are intended to support families/friends
in caring for their own loved ones at home after
death.
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Mission
Statement
CINDEA
(Canadian Integrative Network for Death Education
and Alternatives) has been created to:
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provide
information and educational resources, focused
on a broad
spectrum of options
throughout the pan-death process (before,
during and after death), |
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promote
pan-death options that are more natural, personalized
and/or ecologically-responsible, |
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support
the networking of those who offer related
services in Canada, and |
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encourage
the acceptance of death as a natural part
of the cycle of life, |
 
in order to
integrate all of the facets of the pan-death process.
Vision
Statement
CINDEA's
purpose is to:
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support
the modern movement to re-integrate death
into the 'cycle of life' in a healthy way
within
our culture |
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inform
the public of existing options for the pan-death
process that they may not be aware of |
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encourage
the expansion of pan-death options which are
less institutionalized and more
personalized to the values of the death journeyer
and their family |
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support
all the required elements of 'dying at home'
(including at-home after-death care),
as well as encourage care facilities to make
more personalized options available within
their
facility |
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encourage
the integration of services available before,
during and after death |
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support
the developing movement of death midwives,
and establish a process to recognize
death midwives who offer pan-death services
in Canada — as well as other alternative
service
providers who offer more specialized services
within the pan-death process |
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encourage
the networking of pan-death service providers,
and public accessibility to them |
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support
options for natural death, green burials,
and other ecologically-conscious 'end of life'
practices. |
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Various
Contact Forms
CINDEA
and By My Own Heart and Hand introduction
You can sign up here
for a short introductory Zoom visit —
book a date first, then go to the bottom and book
a time.
The general hours are noon to 8 pm Pacific time,
but will need to be confirm.
Feel
free to comment on the content of this website
here.
Mailing List
for CINDEA Updates
You can subscribe
to be put on our mailing list for occasional
updates on CINDEA' s development and pan-deathcare
community news.
We
support the following
CINDEA
is now on Facebook
—
with updates as they happen.
Our thanks
to Skeena
web services for hosting this site.
We also acknowledge the use of (now defunct) GRsites
programs and backgrounds.
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