Grief Ceremony - October 23-24, 2026
Register using the form linked here.
What is Community Grief-Tending?
Our culture is grief averse, maybe even grief-phobic.
The one moment when grief is normal, at funerals, it is often subtly dismissed:
- "They're in a better place now."
- "You held it together beautifully today."
- "At least you got to say goodbye."
What if you had the opportunity to meet your grief with open arms?
What if you could let grief be your teacher and guide, and learn from it directly how it would be tended?
Community Grief Tending provides exactly this space to explore and express our griefs.
During this 2-day experiential event, your guides will introduce techniques for gently wading into your grief. This includes guided exercises in non-judgemental listening, guided movement, shared poetry, and other experiential mechanisms.
As a community grief-tending event, everyone will participate in co-creating the weekend, with the guidance of the facilitators. By learning and practicing interdependence in our grieving, we:
- find courage to face suppressed emotions
- increase our capacity to focus loving attention on another
- open our hearts more in a painful world
- and return to what matters most to each of us.
Our gatherings honor all forms of grief including losses, life change and transitions, pain and wounding from your past, sorrows for our world (planetary, societal, racial, cultural, etc.), loss of belonging, ancestral grief, and much more. There is no grief too big or too small for our circles.
What participants often discover is that our griefs are interconnected, a part of our nature, and a brilliant part of our human technology for orienting around what matters to us and what we love.
It is common to leave feeling very tender, open to wonder and mystery, and with a clearer sense of what matters to you.
This weekend is inspired by the Dagara funeral rites stewarded by Malidoma & Sobonfu Somé as well as numerous other teachers such as Joanna Macy, Francis Weller, Martin Prechtel, among many others living and dead.
Your Facilitators
Cameron Carrick
Cameron is a facilitator, community organizer, and poet. He sees community grief rituals as one (powerful) entry point into the collective healing our times so desperately need. Born and raised in the desert of Central Oregon, he is now proud to call Vancouver Island his home.
Quetzo J. Herejk
Quetzo is a community therapist by day, a wilderness soul guide by night, and an activist at heart. Born to european immigrants, they live in East Vancouver and consider tending grief to be one way of loving this world and co-shaping a future worth living in.
Register using the form linked here.
Logistics
Location
We are gathering at Fallen Alders Community Hall, on lands of the Pentlatch, E'iksan, Sathloot, Sasitla, and K'omoks first peoples.
This is an indoor event, though we will spend considerable time in the field and woods adjacent to the building.
The precise location and travel details will be provided upon completion of the registration.
Accessibility
All of our activities are at-choice. That said, they will involve voluntary movement, dancing, shaking, drumming, vocal expression, wailing, crying, or other forms of embodied release. These activities carry inherent physical risks, including slips, strains, falls, or activation of pre-existing conditions.
Safety at this event is co-created. We are each responsible for safety.
Participants will be asked to agree to:
- stay aware of their personal limits
- take breaks or modify activities as needed
- communicate their needs as appropriate
- refrain from actions that may harm or intimidate others
- engage with care and consent
- acknowledge that they are always free to opt out of any activity.
Fallen Alders Hall has an accessible ramp.
Child Support
Is childcare supportive to your attendance / experience of this weekend?
Please text Kiara at 604-835-8276 to join a group of parents crowd-funding childcare for Friday Oct 23, 9am-5pm (ages 3-10 out of diapers or inquire about older ages).
Times - October 23-24
Friday, October 23: 9:00am to late evening (approximately 10pm, though could be later)
Please arrive between 8:45–9:00 am.
Saturday, October 24: 10am to 5pm.
Please arrive between 9:45 and 10am.
Lodging
This is a non-residential retreat. You will return to your own accommodations between days.
If required, camping arrangements can be made in the field adjacent to the site.
Register using the form linked here.
Payment & Registration
In an effort to balance sustainability and accessibility, this event is offered at four pricing tiers. You can read more about Cam’s pricing philosophy here.
Tier 1 - Community-supported - $225
For those for whom money is currently a barrier. Choose this if a higher tier would keep you from coming.
Tier 2 - At-cost - $355
Covers your share of the actual expenses to make this retreat happen.
Tier 3 - Sustainer - $500
Pays your way and contributes toward holding a seat for someone who couldn't otherwise attend.
Tier 4 - Benefactor - $625+
Redistributes resources so this work stays accessible; your contribution enables multiple community-supported spots.
[!Note:]
Our aim is for no one to be turned away from grief ceremony due to lack of funds.We are very open to your creative offerings and solutions.
Please contact Cam or Quetzo to discuss.
Register using the form linked here.
Reciprocity
We are committed to reciprocity. A portion of revenue for this event will cycle back into community projects, like the Dagara Well Water project or local land-based initiatives.
Refunds & Cancellation
We’ve moved to a No Refunds policy.
We’ve found that this has been helpful in building group cohesion and courage, and ensuring that the ritual will happen!
It’s normal for life and/or some version of fear to kick up beforehand, but we secure our venues and facilitators based on our group registration and cannot pivot last minute. Committing to the ceremony of grieving in community is a collective gesture. The financial end of making them happen is a collective process, too.
If you are not able to attend for whatever reason after registering, you are welcome to find someone else to take your spot. The person who replaces you must also register and needs to be connected with our registration team at least 7 days before the retreat. In the 7 days leading up to the retreat, our attention shifts away from admin tasks and screen time to prepping for our in-person time.