Podcasts & Interviews
Podcast Interview with Catherine Ashton of Critical Info
Bonita's journey began with a simple but profound question on a drive home from holiday: “What if I died? What would happen?” That moment sent her down a rabbit hole into community-led death care, eventually leading her to specialise in extended family-led vigils and the care of babies and children who have died.
Bonita shares what she has learned from working with bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents, including the “concentric circles of support” model for knowing who to lean on, and who not to burden, in grief. We talk candidly about invisible infant loss, the myths that still shape what people believe is or isn't possible in after-death care, and why she pushes back when funeral providers say something “can't be done.” Bonita also explains what home-based death care actually looks like, what a shrouded witness cremation involves, and why she believes death education belongs in schools.
We also explore her work in paediatric palliative care, where she says the first word that comes to mind is joy, and how holding both heartbreak and joy at once has shaped the way she supports families from diagnosis through to bereavement.
Click on image to access episode via Critical Info.
Podcast by Melbourne funeral celebrant - Fiona Garrivan - Check out her website here and download the podcast on the usual platforms.
A podcast created to help navigate the difficult time of a death of a loved one.
Cultural storyteller - Danzal Baker aka Baker Boy. Narrated by Hugh Jackman
Journey Home, David Gulpilil
A documentary by Madman Films 2025
Journey to remote Australia for a celebration of life like you’ve never seen before.
When Australia’s most renowned Indigenous actor David Gulpilil passes away far from his Homeland, his family struggle against huge logistical challenges to fulfill his final wish, to bury him on his Homeland, over four and a half thousand kilometres away.
Directed by Lynette Wallworth
TENDER Documentary
Set against the stunning backdrop of the industrial seaside town of Port Kembla, a feisty and resilient community group have determined to take back the responsibility that most of us leave to someone else – to care for their own dead. Scattered throughout are stories that cut to the core revealing why this small band have decided to take on a practice that for most is taboo.
As their plans for community-based funerals gather momentum one of their own is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. TENDER is at once a heartbreakingly beautiful and beautifully funny glimpse of an extraordinary community taking on one of the most essential challenges of human life…its ends.
Directed by Lynette Wallworth
Edge of Life
The doorway to death is the last great frontier in a human life. We know intellectually our time will end, and yet, in the Western world at least we often act as if death is a mirage, disappearing the closer we move towards it. Two doctors in Melbourne have engaged psilocybin to help ease the anguish of patients at end of life, and the results they have seen are remarkable. But this visioning tool, like other plant medicines, is not new, it comes from ancient traditions that are now being funneled into Western medicine. It is possible the world’s oldest cultures have something important to teach us, not just about traditional medicines but about one of the most essential aspects of human life, its end?
Director: Ryan White
Come See Me in the Good Light
“Come See Me in the Good Light” is a poignant and unexpectedly funny love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley facing an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit and an unshakable partnership. Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose, and mortality into a moving celebration of resilience.
Directed by Shannon Murphy & Chris Teague
“death is not a mystery, it is not a medical disaster”
FX’s “Dying for Sex” is inspired by the story of Molly Kochan, originally shared on a Wondery podcast created with her best friend, Nikki Boyer. After Molly receives a diagnosis of Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, she decides to leave her husband Steve, and begins to explore the full breadth and complexity of her sexual desires for the first time in her life. She gets the courage and support to go on this adventure from her best friend Nikki, who stays by her side until the very end.