By When we first published this list in 2015, death and death positivity were ‘having a moment‘. Today, fuelled by books, movies, digital media and activists, death consciousness is everywhere. The public is becoming more aware of their post-mortem options, as well as the history and politics of death. The death positive websites and blogs you should know are just some of the individuals and organizations you have to thank for that.
This list of death positive websites and blogs is far from extensive, but it includes some of the organizations, individuals and blogs who are actively trying to change our relationship to death and dying. Some are death professionals, some want to normalize grief, some want to empower you to make informed end-of-life decisions, and some are just plain interesting.
For more death related blogs, organizations, podcasts and media sites, visit our links page.
If you know of other death positive website and blog or resources, leave a comment below for others to discover!
Death Positive Websites and Blogs
National Home Funeral Alliance
The National Home Funeral Alliance advocates for home funerals in America, and gives you the necessary tools to plan a home funeral. The NHFA is a volunteer run organization that is the leading body of home after-death care support and education in the US. Cassandra Yonder is a good resource for home funerals in Canada.
What’s Your Grief
What’s Your Grief is an excellent resource for anyone dealing with the death of a loved one. Rather than try and rush the process of bereavement, WYG encourages their readers to work through their feelings in positive, long lasting ways. This site contains blogs, grief resources, how-to’s and more.
For more grief and bereavement resources, click here or here.
Death Cafe
While the online portion of Death Cafe is only secondary to their actual events, it facilitates finding an offline, death positive community. Death Cafe’s are informal meetings that happen all over the world where people get together and talk about life, death and everything in between. Chances are there is a local Death Cafe chapter in your city.
Death Over Dinner is a similar organization worth checking out! They provide the tools to host your own dinner party where you and your guests can talk about death and dying. The founder also recently released a book.
Funeral Consumers Alliance
The goal of Funeral Consumers Alliance is to ensure consumers are fully prepared and protected when planning a funeral for themselves or their loved ones. The FCA fact-checks, mystery shops, and does funeral information legwork so you can be fully prepared when planning a funeral.
Canada does not have a national service similar to the FCA, but every province and some major cities will have consumer protection offices. You can find a detailed list Here.
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.” If you are looking for a death-midwife, end-of-life resources, advice for home funerals and more, CINDEA is your first stop.
Ernest Becker Foundation
The Ernest Becker Foundation established in 1993 “advances understanding of how the unconscious denial of mortality profoundly influences human behavior.” Named after the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death, the EBF is a resource hub, educator, and supports a variety of academic projects.
The Order of the Good Death
Founded by Caitlin Doughty, The Order of the Good Death has grown to become much more than a simple blog/website raising death awareness. The Order has dozens of members including academics, morticians, funeral directors and artists. Caitlin’s well known YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician, is an informative and hilarious video series.
The Order also runs a large death positive conference, Death Salon.
Modern Loss
“Modern Loss is a place to share the unspeakably taboo, unbelievably hilarious, and unexpectedly beautiful terrain of navigating your life after a death. Beginners welcome.” Filled with stories of grief, mourning and death acceptance, Modern Loss is a repository of stories, essays, resources and information about dealing with loss. Our Australian friends may want to check out The Ground Swell Project.
Death Reference Desk
The Death Reference Desk is run by three professors and two librarians at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. Pulling from their knowledge and experience, the goal of the DRD is to “inform the casually interested and morbidly curious alike about All Things Death: the bizarre, the batty and the beautiful, from interesting blogs and recommended books to commentary and analysis of death in the news.”
Green Burial Council
The Green Burial Council operates in both Canada and the United States, and offers environmental certificates for funeral homes, cemeteries and product manufacturers with the goal of creating the standard for green burial in North America. The GBC’s website contains helpful information about green burial, including a reference to find a green provider near you.
Canadians will want to check out the Green Burial Society and the Natural Burial Association as well.
More Death Positive Websites and Blogs
Death & the Maiden
Death & the Maiden is a blog, resource hub, and collective of women in death care. They highlight the important, historical role that women have played in death care, and their growing role in our society today. Death & the Maiden is a website of political action in the world of death care and is one of the best in our list of death positive websites and blogs.
Confessions of a Funeral Director
A 6th generation funeral director and prolific blogger, Caleb Wilde started Confessions of a Funeral Director as a window into the death profession. His blog runs the gamut from humour, memes, short stories, advice and of course, secrets from the world of funeral directors. A must read for anyone interested in the funeral profession and death awareness.
Other notable professional death positive websites and blogs include Lauren LeRoy’s Little Miss Funeral, A Good Goodbye, The Modern Mortician, and Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris.
Spade & The Grave
Spade & The Grave is a place to explore the topics of death, dying, and burial through the lens of archaeology. The blog is run by Robyn S. Lacy, who is an archaeologist, Cultural Heritage Specialist, and illustrator from British Columbia. Her blog is full of interesting information, and great photographs.
Morbid Anatomy Blog
Your resource for morbid museums, websites, collections and more, the Morbid Anatomy blog is a treasure trove of interesting information. The blog curates death positive resources, historical and interesting facts, and art. More than that, Morbid Anatomy operates a research library at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY, holds regular art exhibits, and once operated a museum.
Death & The City
Death & The City is the personal blog of Los Angeles based mortician, Amber Carvaly. Amber runs Undertaking LA, an all-female mortuary “committed to bringing death back into the family’s home.” Her blog posts will give you a good idea what it is like to be a mortician.
Reddit Communities
Reddit is actually a great resource for death positivity. r/deathpositive is run by The Order of the Good Death and is a great place to keep up to date with their activities. r/deathlings is a great collection of news and information. And although it isn’t a death positive resource, r/askfuneraldirectors is a great resource for anyone thinking about a job in death care, or are curious about funeral directing in general.
Thankyou Mandy for this great list!
Had no idea there were quite so many diverse sights. Really encouraging to feel the winds of change.
We created our website http://www.beyondgoodbye.co.uk after our sons death in 2011 and it continues to grow and develop. Take a look.
WOW… what a gift these people and organisations have given.
HI! Though in Spanish I would love to be included in this list. We are in Buenos Aires, developing a six year organization who specializes in preparation for death from a human, transpersonal perspective.
We hold Death Cafe every month, we train people in acompanyng and offer support groups for families, caregivers and mourning people.
Our name: EL FARO (THE LIGHTHOUSE)
Thank you!!
HI! I would love to include my website in this list,
Though in Spanish ( we are in buenos Aires, Argentina) our website shows that we are trying to change the social perspective about Death from a “tragic” to a healing opportunity in peoples lives.
As a NGO we hold the first Death Cafe in Latin America, we offer training, worshops and a home service ment to facilitate people´s preparation for death
Our name: EL FARO ( THE LIGHTHOUSE)
THANK YOU!
This is a really great list! Modernloss really helped me through the loss of my first child. Thanks
What about http://www.deathtalker.com or thegroundswellproject.com auspicing international Dying to Know Day, would be good for these to appear on your list.
Let’s have dinner and talk about death has some good stuff on it: http://deathoverdinner.org/
I’m a funeral photographer but I am also interested in ‘celebration of life’ images (like Morrie Schwartz had!). There’s beauty in people being kind to one another at funerals (capturing tenderness is what I’m all about). Beauty in the everyday.
http://thefuneralphotographer.com.au/
Celebrate life every day and remember that death is just a part of it.
http://www.ireminis.com
[…] Top 8 Websites Raising Death Awareness […]
Thank you for this. I clearly have some reading to do! I also have a blog about palliative and end of life care and my experiences as a RN, PPSMC and human. I am quite new to the blogging world but If anyone is interested… http://dyingdreads.wordpress.com
Thank you so much for this list, many I follow, many are new for me to check out. I would love to share my Facebook/Instagram page Grief and Grits. Come by, we have a wonderful community.
I have a small blog – thedonationdiaries.wordpress.com about Body donation in the U.K. 🙂 hope it will be useful to some people!
Thanks for the great list! There is definitely a lot to learn. Like a lot of commentators, I also have a passion-project blog – necropolitico.wordpress.com addressing queer politics in dying and providing resources to protect the identities of LGBTQIA+ folks post-mortem.
Hey; what about the fb group with 5500 members including almost everyone who is involved with the community deathcare movement?
Everyone is welcome to join the group, where I’ve been sharing alternative deathcare related articles from the social media since 2012.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/306940662720202/
Thanks for sharing! Maybe we’ll make a separate FB & social media death positive resource
Thank you very much for collating all these resources – there is so much information out there and bringing it together is very helpful. May we add our website too – about End of Life Doulas
All the very best with what you are doing
Chrysalis End-of-Life Inspirations offers information on advance care planning, Medical Aid-in-Dying and keeping vigil with the dying. You can watch uplifiting videos of some of my presentations. There is a Facebook page that posts articles and commentary.
For people who are able to read in the Dutch language… Bureau MORBidee made some conversation starters, focussed on end-of-life issues, with names as Kaartjes van Betekenis, Heeft de dood een kleur? and Oog in Oog. Samen praten over als en dan. On their website, there is also a short English part.
So great to see this list, but as many have pointed out, there is so much more! Including The When You Die Project at http://www.WhenYouDie.org – a resource for all things death and dying aimed at getting people to talk about death.
Death is not a thing to get frightened. There are so many factors and technology associated with. This list is a good one that conveys information.
Don’t forget AGoodGoodbye.com and The Family Plot Blog.
Would appreciate booklists on this amazing topic..fiction and non-fiction please.Or where to find them.If I had a blog it would be called “Not IF but WHEN”.Any of you more creative people feel free to adopt it.