Sorry Business - Mourning
The elaborate practices surrounding death and grief.
Death triggers complex mourning protocols including restrictions on naming the deceased, temporary camps, ceremonial activities, and grief rituals. Sorry business ensures the deceased transitions properly and the living can heal.
Sorry business takes time. You cannot rush grief.
Sorry business provides structured space for communal grief processing.
Oral Tradition
Written about in
- What Aboriginal tradition says about kinship and sharing
Death sets off a long set of protocols covering naming, camps and ceremony, held by the community rather than the immediate family. Grief is given time and is not expected to be finished quickly.
- What Aboriginal tradition says about grief
Death triggers a protocol, not only an emotion: restrictions on naming the deceased, camps relocated, ceremonial obligations that fall on particular relatives. The duration is set by the ceremony rather than by how the mourner happens to feel on a given morning.