SFA’s End of Life: Continuum (EOL) project shares cultural knowledge about traditions, expressions, and practices associated with end of life, grief, mourning and death in Southern Arizona’s folk, ethnic, occupational, faith-based and alternative communities.
In 2019, as part of our Continuum: End of Life program, SFA facilitated a series of community gatherings, which were guided by local hosts and included a meal, conversation, and education about end-of-life practices, rituals, and traditions. While these gatherings were private, this video offers a mini-ethnography of several key community members to illuminate some of the practices and traditions shared. Films and gatherings made possible with support from the Shaaron Kent Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona and The David and Lura Lovell Foundation.
The Southwest Folklife Alliance is a partner in the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership, a growing network of organizations and individuals committed to ensuring quality of life at every stage through education, support, sound policy and choices.
PUBLICATIONS
Since 2014, the EOL project has developed materials documenting local traditions associated with death and dying, including interviews, photos, citizen reports, and a list of national and community resources.
Finding Refuge:The Comforts of Culture in Grief, Trauma, Death and end of life for Refugees resettled in Southern Arizona. (June 2018)
International Border: Ceremony & Healing (May 2018)
Cruzando Fronteras: Ceremonia y Duelo (May 2018)
Continuum: Muslim Communities (February 2018)
Folklife Well Seasoned: End of Life Approaches & Traditions of Elders Living Alone (Oct. 2017)
Continuum End of Life Booklets (4), May 2016
Continuum Journal, May 2015
Continuum Resources Listing and Workbook, May 2015
VozFrontera