Friday 26 April 2019
Going Out with the Tide Festival, which this year takes place from Monday 13th May until Sunday 19th May, helps people talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for end of life.
Going out with the Tide is a local initiative launched in 2018 as part of the national 'Dying Matters Awareness Week' which has been marked in Guernsey for the last six years.
This year Health & Social Care is working in partnership with a number of organisations and individuals including Guille-Alles Library, BBC Radio Guernsey, Guernsey Arts Commission, Tin Whistle Productions and The Town Church to hold a series of public events.
BBC Radio Guernsey's 'Guidelines' programme will host several health professionals and community members over the week as they explore different themes around death and dying from a lasting legacy to a GP's perspective.
Tin Whistle productions, sponsored by Guernsey Charities Trust, have been commissioned to create a one-man show 'A Journey yet to be told'. This site specific production, performed at the Town Church and at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, gently explores many different stories around death and dying.
At Guille-Alles Library there will be leaflets on the practicalities surrounding dying and information on Dying Matters Awareness Week. Free copies of the Doris Stickney book 'Water Bugs and Dragonflies' which helps explain death to young children and sponsored by The Sarah Groves Foundation will also be available.
Two Guernsey Arts Commission open arts competition winners Liz Adams and Georgina Smart will have their artwork displayed on Market Terrace during the festival.
Winning Artist Georgina Smart says:
"My Illustration is inspired by the very personal experience of the death of my own Grandma. She never felt able to talk about death, dying or her own wishes, which only seemed to make the confusion and grief at the end of her life that much more intense. My Grandma was a keen gardener so her presence in the image is very much defined by the symbolic plants and flowers, which denote the essence of the deceased.I Love the concept 'Going Out with the Tide', it feels like a positive sign of our development as a community, moving towards a peaceful place of acknowledgment of the defining part of life that is death."
Lottie Barnes, Culture, Arts and Health Manager, HSC says:
"The arts offer a unique way in which to support our community to hold a difficult conversations and also provide space for reflection and thought. This festival is a great example of the community working together for a positive outcome."
