Category: suicide bereavement
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May 20th, sharing the love
Today marks what would’ve been my son Reuben Winter’s 32nd birthday, had he not taken his life in 2020. The deep mamae (pain) accompanying suicide bereavement is something many people shy away from, possibly because it’s unfixable. Being the woman I am, I’ve felt compelled to speak to it alongside…
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Silence that Speaks
Last month, I had the privilege to be part of a panel discussion speaking to suicide and the arts, with Nadine Anne Hura, Hendrix Hennessy-Ropiha and Susan Wardell (moderator). This was a collaboration between Flash Frontier’s Roundtable Series He mutunga | Endings and the Centre for Medical Humanities, University of…
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YouTube Review
My deepest gratitude to Pallas Hupé Cotter, for the review of A Counter of Moons. Thank you for the work you’re doing in the areas of grief, suicide bereavement and loss. It warms my heart to know that there are wonderful people also working in this space. Iona x
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The dichotomies of grief
This year’s theme for World Suicide Prevention Day was “changing the narrative around suicide”. How can we do this, when there’s no way to sugarcoat suicide bereavement? It’s not a thing you survive; this kind of grief accompanies you for life. I’ve attempted to challenge “the narrative around suicide” by…
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Grief and the healing powers of creativity: Interview with Helen Lehndorf
Helen Lehndorf and I recently had a slow cooked interview via the ether, and she has generously shared it on her blog this week (link below). Once again, I am grateful, indebted, thankful, relieved (insert any other useful descriptor here) that a writerly friend hasn’t shied away from speaking about…
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Companionship in the Hard Places
Last week at the New Moon, good friend, poet and artist, Kirstie McKinnon had a chat with me about A Counter of Moons (link below). We shared a gorgeous heart-centred conversation about the book, suicide bereavement and its complexities, the coexistence of pain and love, and the importance of breaking…
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A Counter of Moons interview and a new poem
Heartfelt thanks to Robin Barratt at Poetry for Mental Health (UK) https://www.poetryformentalhealth.org/interview-with-iona-winter In this interview I speak about mental health and my journey with it, including the body of work I’ve done since Reuben took his life. Alongside this, Robin has also published a new poem The sound of raupō…