Decolonising the aftermath of death in UK contexts: theoretical approaches, institutional ‘constraints’, and everyday experiences

Hamilton, Sukhbinder; Keenan, Joseph; Pusey, Laura; Ribbens McCarthy, Jane; Stedmon, Jacqui and Taylor, Foluke (2025). Decolonising the aftermath of death in UK contexts: theoretical approaches, institutional ‘constraints’, and everyday experiences. Mortality: Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying (Early access).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2025.2458588

Abstract

Innovative decolonising work always entails going beyond diversity, but has only recently been raised in relation to ‘bereavement studies’. This paper explores what it may entail to ‘decolonise’ death and its continuing aftermath in the lives of the living. In the UK, documented experiences of racialised inequalities and discrimination have clearly evidenced the pervasiveness of institutional racism across many key areas of life. In the bereavement sector specifically, the paucity of appropriate support for minoritised ethnic populations was identified as a central issue in the 2022 UK Bereavement Commission Report, with services poorly placed to respond. Addressing these concerns raises profound challenges associated with the whiteness of coloniality/modernity, onto-epistemological in/justice, and institutional power constraints. Attending with openness to lived experience offers a possibility for social justice that may benefit all in responding to the aftermath of death. Following the diverse panel convened under this title for the CDAS conference 2023, we build in a somewhat ‘unruly’ fashion on our continuing conversations, asking whether ‘decolonising’ might demand reconsideration of how, as well as what, we write. Hoping to encourage dialogue between scholars, practitioners and lived experience, we offer no firm conclusions but seek to open new spaces to address the ‘deadly silence’ that currently predominates.

Plain Language Summary

In the UK there is well documented evidence of institutional racism across many areas of life. Similarly, support services for racially minoritised people who are ‘bereaved’ are acknowledged to be significantly lacking. The roots of these injustices can be traced historically to colonialism and the associated historic patterns and structures of power that continue into the present. Current approaches to ‘bereavement and grief’ claim to offer universal knowledge based in the science and rationality of whiteness. These historic and continuing patterns of power are also experienced inter-generationally in people’s lived experiences, including in their continuing everyday lives in the aftermath of death. This article therefore explores what it may involve to consider the topics of ‘bereavement and grief’ through a ‘decolonising’ lens. We draw on a panel discussion hosted by the CDAS conference of 2023 and our subsequent collaborative conversations, querying both how as well as what we write. We hope to open spaces to disrupt the ‘deadly silence’ on these topics, to the benefit of all people experiencing death and its aftermath.

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