Natural burials too hard
After quarter of a century of requests for a natural burial cemetery in Palmerston North, a lobby group is on the cusp or being formed to make things happen.
Three times the city council has explored options, and three times it has failed to come up with a solution.
Natural Burials founder and advocate Mark Blackham told a meeting hosted by Environment Manawatū Network in the city on Friday that it would take a group of active citizens to push the concept.
Blackham formed the not-for-profit Natural Burials organisation in 1999, and was instrumental in setting up New Zealand’s first natural burial cemetery in Makara in Wellington in 2008.
There were now 18 more around the country, with up to 2000 people buried in them.
Blackham said natural burials appealed to people who wanted to look after the environment, as it allowed bodies to decompose into their elements, providing energy for other organisms, supporting plantings that created areas of bush or forest for all to enjoy.
He had also heard people report that a natural burial was comforting for the bereaved, knowing that their loved one was becoming a part of the natural cycle of life.
He said in a Palmerston North survey in 2010, one-third of respondents said they would definitely or probably use a natural cemetery.
But the environmentally friendly practice still remained out of reach for city residents.
Long-time advocate Jean Hera, who wrote a doctoral thesis on home death, has been submitting to the city council on the subject since 1998.
Around 2010, the city council decided to do something, and began investigating possible sites where people could be buried, without embalming in either shrouds or untreated timber caskets, in shallow graves, among new plantings that would develop into areas of bush.
But its proposal to use McCraes Bush, a river terrace at Ashhurst, ran into community opposition and was rejected in 2015.
Attention then turned to using part of the Kelvin Grove Cemetery, but investigations concluded that the heavy clay soil was unsuitable for encouraging natural decomposition, so any natural graves would have to be backfilled with better soil or compost.
The most recent proposal was to make arrangements for Palmerston North people to be able to have natural burials in Whanganui.
The council’s community committee in November last year narrowly supported a recommendation to seek expressions of interest from the community for a partnership-based approach to providing a natural burial site in Palmerston North.
Blackham said Palmerston North was an outlier in not having a natural burial option, as most other councils had been persuaded by public demand.
He said some councils became interested in natural cemeteries because they required less maintenance and input than traditional burial grounds.
They did not have to put in roads and paths, there were no lawns to be mowed or tombstones or decorations to be tidied up.
He said it was a shame that many of the people he had spoken to in Palmerston North years ago had since died, and had missed out on the burial they wanted.
He said there was an argument that councils that did not provide for people’s burial wishes were discriminating against them based on their religious or ethical beliefs.
Blackham said it would be people who would make the difference for Palmerston North, especially if they were able to come up with a proposal for a site.
Environment Network Manawatū communications and events leader Helen King said meeting attendees and anyone who was interested in forming a lobby group to help come up with a plan could get in touch at comms@enm.org.nz.