Anishnaabe artist sharing cultural perspective at funeral industry event

As an Anishnaabe artist and educator, a funeral industry event may not be the first place you'd expect to see Will Morin. 

But on Thursday morning, Morin, of Sudbury, will be addressing the crowd at Collège Boréal's Living, Aging and Dying exposition. 

Morin will be speaking about the importance of building awareness about Indigenous traditions and practices around end of life — and how best to welcome and support people in culturally relevant ways. 

"All industries, all institutions in Canada are still lacking in that awareness of other than western European history, western European protocols and traditions," Morin said. 

There's no simple guidebook to quickly teach people about Indigenous traditions, as they vary from one group to another. Plus, Morin noted, many Indigenous people have "assimilated" and follow western traditions.

"But there may be members within the family that may need additional elements, so some traditional medicines that are there, or having a space set aside for them to be able to do things. Or to open up the use of the actual viewing room in the funeral homes where they can burn traditional medicines."

Morin hopes his talk will get people thinking about the ways they can be more inclusive, and accommodate different cultural traditions. The most important thing, he said, is to ask if you don't know how best to support someone. 

"If I'm going to talk about anything, it's about relationship building," Morin said. 

Morin's remarks will be one of two talks preceding an exposition with more than 40 kiosks, covering topics from healthy living to end of life services available in the community. 

Camille Lemieux, the director of the funeral services program at Collège Boréal, said for several years people in the funeral industry have been talking about how best to reach out to the public, and encourage people to talk about death and preparations for end of life and funerals. 

"Many people are just scared of speaking about death and even just thinking about it," Lemieux said. 

He hopes the event, which is open to members of the public and those in the industry, will help to change that.