DR AMANDA STRONZA : ANIMAL MEMORIALS

Queer Death Stories Podcast

Dr Amanda Stronza is an ICON y'all. If you've never seen her IG or her website you're in for a treat!!!

Her passion for creating memorials and rituals for animals who have been hit by cars and abandoned make her an honorary Death Midwife in my book, and a bit of a witch too! (And you know how I love my fellow witches) By day, she is a well respected anthropologist and photographer, but she also dedicated to educating us on how to make space for these small creatures who die in silence, be it deer or mice, snakes or rabbits. She makes them each a beautiful mandala or simply decorates their bodies with flowers and gives them a caring "send off". I was so moved by her images when I first discovered her on IG that I immediately needed to follow her and know more. Sharing her carefully arranged effigies withy own community in order to invoke more understanding for this work I'm doing too. We don't need expensive funeral homes and metal coffins, we need to be reconnected with nature and to return to our roots. These modern sanitized solutions are not sustainable, and they are not even cost effective?!

Amanda should know, her work in Africa is incredible to witness in the documentary with ECOexist on her website. As a conservationist her focus is on harmonizing humans with nature. And she is every bit the compassionate, brilliant deep soul that she appears to be on social media. Authentic and tender, and so fierce. Even though she doesn't think of herself as "brave", she is RAD. To be honest, it's hard to imagine people getting upset with her about her photos. But like we talk about in this conversation, people are frightened by DEATH and pain. Seeing dead animals is very heartbreaking, but then again we also need to stop looking away. They need our advocacy, our friendship, our grace as they lay suffering, or discarded. In this conversation you'll hear her talk about "human exceptionalism" when it comes to death and I hope her message reaches as many folks as possible. We need to move towards understanding that every death matters. Every living being deserves death with dignity!

If you like my show please give me a kind review, share with your Grandma (true story someone did and she loved it) share with your co workers and neighbors, the more we have these discussions the less alone we feel in our grief.

The next episode airs next week! With the one and only Legendary Queer Outsider Author & Astrologer Michelle Tea