To Absent Friends, a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance

Abstract

To Absent Friends (TAF) is a Scotland-wide festival of storytelling and remembrance which takes place annually from 1-7 November. Born from a desire to reduce the social isolation of people who have been bereaved, TAF provides an opportunity for people across Scotland to remember, to tell stories, to celebrate and to reminisce about people they love who have died. This article explains the rationale for initiating a participative festival of this kind, provides an overview of TAF and gives case study illustrations of four different categories of activity: public; private; community and online. It concludes that TAF enables local creativity, has the potential to engage people from all walks of life, and there is great scope for its future growth and positive impact.

Key words:

• Bereavement
• storytelling
• loss
• remembrance
• memorialisation
• public health

Notes

¹ Age UK (2012). Loneliness and Isolation evidence review . Available from:

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/documents/en-gb/for-professionals/evidence_review_loneliness_and_isolation.pdf?dtrk=true

² The Compassionate Friends (2013). Say their name (a film). Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS9z3dwMhZs and Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (2013). The 100% Project (a film). Available from: http://www.chas.org.uk/100percentproject/whatis100 and from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS9z3dwMhZs

³ Williams, L (2014). Continuing bonds: shifting the grief paradigm: what’s your grief? Available from: https://whatsyourgrief.com/continuing-bonds-shifting-the-grief-paradigm/

⁴ Rumbold B, Aoun, S (2013). Bereavement and palliative care: a public health perspective. Progress in Palliative Care 22(3) 131-135.

⁵ Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care (2015) To Absent Friends... a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance. Activity Report and Evaluation 2015. Available from: https://www.palliativecarescotland.org.uk/content/publications/1474013863_TAF-evaluation-report-May-2016.pdf.

⁶ Addressing palliative and end of life care from a public health and health promotion perspective: facilitating wider discussion of death, dying and bereavement across society - Short Life Working Group 7 Final Report. Scottish Government, (March 2010). Available from: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/924/0105610.pdf