DEATH is not a topic you'd typically expect to come up while you're sitting down with a cuppa and slice of cake.
But it's a subject that will accompany cups of coffee and sweets at meetings in Capalaba and Victoria Point this month.
The "Death Cafe" movement made its Redlands debut at the Capalaba library last Friday.
Based on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, Death Cafes are a relatively simple, if unorthodox concept: strangers come together at a cafe, library or restaurant, have a cup of tea or coffee and learn about death.
Local organiser, Australian Celebrants Training director and Victoria Point resident Beth O'Brien stressed that the meeting was not grief counselling or therapy; rather, it was an education session to break down the taboo around the topic and better inform people about death.
"I often go to someone's home to take notes for a funeral service and find that they've never discussed anything to do with death," she said.
"If we can get families to discuss some of these things or individuals to make their own plans it will be a lot more pleasant for people and they won't make some of the really important decisions when they're grieving."
Ms O'Brien said organisers were often bombarded with similar questions at each meeting, such as burial practices, when to hold a funeral and where a ceremony can be held.
"A lot of people don't know that, if they request it, they can have ceremonies in places other than chapels in Queensland," she said.
"Having the Death Cafes in the local community is giving people local information, because sometimes the things they read on the internet apply to other states or other countries."
While most Death Cafe meetings are held in relatively private spaces, a pilot meeting will be held in the open at a Victoria Point cafe on Saturday.
Ms O'Brien said although most participants were aged 45 and over, everyone was welcome, regardless of their age or concerns about death.
"We're all equally born, we all get to equally die and so one health issue is no more devastating than the next," she said.
The next meeting will be held at The Espresso Bar, attached to Victoria Point Library, on Saturday, March 15 at 1pm.
