| dc.description.abstract | Coffin Clubs are a social phenomenon in Aotearoa New Zealand, where people gather for
two main purposes: to talk about death and dying, and to build their own coffins. This latter,
practical aspect is what sets Coffin Clubs apart from other death-related support groups. This
research explores why people attend Katikati Coffin Club. My field work involved attending
Katikati Coffin Club on a weekly basis for more than a year. While I was there, I helped build
and decorate many coffins, including my own. Using participant-observation and
ethnographic accounts from club members, my findings reveal the nuanced reasons people
choose to attend Coffin Club, and why many continue to attend long after they have finished
building their coffin. This research explores the practical element of Katikati Coffin Club
through the lens of the anthropology of craftwork. I consider how the act of building a coffin
facilitates conversations about death, dying and grief. I argue that building a coffin can be
seen as a form of storytelling, and an acknowledgement of mortality. Finally, I suggest that
Coffin Club provides an alternative to the coffins sold by the funeral industry, and is a way to
take control of/personalise ‘death work’ (actively preparing for death, both practically and in
more abstract, emotional ways). My findings assert that Coffin Club helps people talk about
death and grief. It creates a space for people to share different practices relating to death
work, and provides an opportunity to craft narratives. As club members tell their stories
through crafting a coffin, they are also able to narrate their loss and grief. As they craft their
coffin, they also craft the relationships and the social space around them. In performing a
practical aspect of death work, Coffin Club members are working on grief and loss.
Woodwork, death work and the work of grief, occurring simultaneously. | en_US |
