This paper explores the ambitious task of decolonising white-led UK bereavement support services, addressing the inequities embedded in the Whiteness of coloniality and modernity. The authors argue that specialised bereavement services may themselves represent an anachronism of a modernity whose core narrative of control and progress obscures other ways of responding to death, and that the existence of such services, based on claimed expertise, can paradoxically intensify uncertainty about what grief 'is' and how it should be supported. Drawing on the experiences of practitioners from diverse heritage backgrounds, the paper explores decolonising possibilities for bereavement support in the everyday lives of individuals, families and diasporic communities.
'If I break your leg, you won't ask me to fix it for you'
This paper explores the ambitious task of decolonising white-led UK bereavement support services, addressing the inequities embedded in the Whiteness of coloniality and modernity. The authors argue that specialised bereavement services may themselves represent an anachronism of a modernity whose core narrative of control and progress obscures other ways of responding to death, and that the existence of such services, based on claimed expertise, can paradoxically intensify uncertainty about what grief 'is' and how it should be supported. Drawing on the experiences of practitioners from diverse heritage backgrounds, the paper explores decolonising possibilities for bereavement support in the everyday lives of individuals, families and diasporic communities.
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