Abstract

During the making of ABC documentary series Laura’s Choice (2021), one interviewee remarked that 'changing society begins with conversations around the kitchen table.' To explore this idea further, I worked with co-director of the documentary, Sam Lara, to develop a set of materials for an exhibition entitled, Conversations around the Kitchen Table. The purpose was to create a safe space for community engagement and dialogue associated with death and dying. The exhibition comprised large photographs, artifacts, text quotes and a video of interviews with Laura and inine previously unseen audio-visual works exploring a diverse range of views on death and dying, including a rabbi, an Islamic leader, an indigenous elder, Dr Philip Nitschke, a lawyer and two doctors. Vistors were able to view the materials and then join others around the Kitchen Table using prompt cards to engage in conversations about end of life choices.

Community attitudes to assisted dying and end of life choice are underexplored in academic research, therefore the exhibition offered an innovative and safe approach to this issue. Visitors were able to view the range of stimulus materials and in conversation around a kitchen table using the prompt cards. A survey offered an alternative way for visitors to express their views and contribute to the conversation. The survey findings are being analysed for a SAH research project on attitudes to death and related journal articles.

Non-Traditional Research Output

Curated Exhibition or Event

Document Type

Non-Traditional Research Output

Evidence of First Exhibition/Presentation

Opening: 18 March 2021 CREAtec floor talk: 24th March 2021 12.30pm - 1.30pm Documentary broadcast: Wednesday 17th and 24th March on ABC PLUS

Location of the Work

ECU Galleries

Research Statement

What started as a very personal project in 2016 documenting Laura and her unorthodox attitudes to life and death has become a feature documentary and two-part television program that will premiere on ABC in March. It has also inspired this exhibition. Laura was outspoken, feisty and 90 years old. She did not have a terminal illness. She simply wanted to be in control of the way her life would end, to be able to choose the time and place and to be allowed to go with grace and dignity. And she asked us, her daughter and granddaughter, both professional filmmakers, to make a film about it. The film explores complex questions as three generations of women travel into uncharted territory and navigate a radical and celebratory approach to death. While there have been films about assisted suicide over the years, Laura’s story is different. She was still mobile, fully aware, and wasn’t suffering from a painful or terminal illness. This raises a host of extra questions and ethical issues that are further explored through this exhibition: Conversations Around the Kitchen Table. The exhibition includes divergent voices and opinions on death and dying. It is designed to encourage thought and reflection on an issue that touches us all. There is also the opportunity to complete a survey aimed at gathering data on the ways we view death and dying. When we interviewed Rabbi White for the documentary, he made the comment that the world is changed less by wars, protests and legislation than it is by conversations that happen around the kitchen table. This prompted the title for the exhibition. Laura’s parting wish was that the documentary would spark conversations around kitchen tables across the country. She wanted to provoke people to talk with their family members about how they’d like to live their final days and how they’d like to die. She challenged us to put her story and her ideas into the public arena to be discussed and debated. She also wanted to challenge the notion that death should be a sombre and traumatic experience. She wanted her final days and her death to be a moment of joyous celebration.

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

65867

Event Title

Conversations around the kitchen table

Event Dates

11 March 2021-25 March 2021

Event Venue

Spectrum Project Space

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Identifier

Cathy Henkel: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8472-0088

Comments

Henkel, C. & Lara S. (2021). Conversations around the kitchen table. Spectrum Project Space. ECU Galleries, Mount Lawley, Western Australia.

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