Prep
- Researching local traditional grief practices.
- Researching traditional grief practices from different parts of the world
- Identifying locations where grief has been traditionally expressed in the community
- Reflecting on the cultural sensitivity of engaging with grief through the arts
- Reading about climate grief in advance.
Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher
Levels in the activity
- Short exploration, with younger learners (11-18)
- Group project (18+)
Level 1: Short exploration, with younger learners (11-18)
- In the first session, introduce practices that were traditionally used for grieving the dead in the village/city/region over the past century/centuries. This can include grieving deaths in the human and more-than-human realms. This can include introducing places where grieving used to take place.
- For homework, ask the learners to ask elders in their family or community (e.g. grandparents and senior neighbors that they admire) about the grieving practices they took part in or witnessed as children, and to write down the stories.
- In the second session, invite some learners to share the stories they collected, and have the group reflect on both convergences and divergences between the stories.
- Invite learners to imagine what grief rituals for the more-than-human beings impacted by the ecological crisis could look like.
Level 2: Group project (18+)
- Invite the groups of learners to research practices that were traditionally used for grieving the dead in the village/city/region over the past century/ies. This can include grieving deaths in the human and more-than-human realms. This can include researching places where grieving used to take place.
- This research can include interviews with various Elders, as well as research into literature or old imagery (e.g. photos, paintings) associated with grievings. In some cases, ancient grieving songs or singing practices could also be included.
- Optional: Invite learners to research grieving practices from other regions or parts of the world. This research could include a visit to a local ethnology museum.
- Invite learners to write about the different grieving practices, including their history, geographical locations and legacies. Invite learners to observe the convergences and divergences between the different grieving practices.
- Encourage learners to explore literature on eco-grief and practices that are designed and offered to young people suffering from eco-grief to grieve the loss and damage associated with climate change, with a focus on the more than human world.
- Invite learners to imagine what grief rituals for the more-than-human beings impacted by the ecological crisis could look like. This can include mobilizing the arts through the writing of stories, drawing, painting, collages, performances or theatre plays…
- Invite learners to imagine what grief rituals for the lives they wished they would have but feel they may not be able to have because of climate change and its impacts could look like. This can include mobilizing the arts through the writing of stories, drawing, painting, collages, performances or theatre plays…
- Give space for a collective reflection on this artistic experience and on the space given to grief in today’s society.
Dos and Don’ts
Do
- Bring up this activity if some climate grief has been expressed in the group
- Invite a diversity of grieving stories. If this implies calling Elders who are relatives living in other countries, this should be encouraged.
- Make space for artistic illustration or representation of grieving practices.
Don’t
- Don’t engage with the grieving practice suggested at the end of level 2 (i.e. steps 6 and 7) without making sure that the topic of climate grief resonates with the learners. If no interest came up in the previous steps, it may not be the right activity for the learners.
- Don’t make students engage in grieving practices, even through the arts, when they do not wish to.
Adaptations
We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging.
References
This activity was designed by One Resilient Earth.
- Atkinson, J. (2022). Eco-Grief and climate anxiety in the classroom. In Routledge eBooks (pp. 35–51). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003201854-5
- Cunsolo, A., & Landman, K. (Eds.). (2017). Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief. McGill-Queen’s University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1w6t9hg
- Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2
- Ojala, M., Cunsolo, A., Ogunbode, C. A., & Middleton, J. (2021). Anxiety, worry, and grief in a time of environmental and climate crisis: A Narrative review. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 46(1), 35–58. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-022716
- Pihkala, P. (2024). Ecological sorrow: Types of grief and loss in ecological grief. Sustainability, 16(2), 849. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020849
- Quaglia, S. (2022, October 11). Glacier grief: how funerals and rituals can help us mourn the loss of nature. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/10/glacier-grief-how-funerals-and-rituals-can-help-us-mourn-the-loss-of-nature-aoe
- Varutti, M. (2023). Claiming ecological grief: Why are we not mourning (more and more publicly) for ecological destruction? AMBIO, 53(4), 552–564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01962-w
