Hayley West on reclaiming the end

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The Nugget
August 08, 2025

★ Hayley West on reclaiming the end ★

Everyone’s fave deathie, Hayley West

Once upon a time, death was a familiar visitor in our homes.

We washed the bodies of our loved ones, wrapped them in cloth, and laid them out so others could say goodbye.

It wasn’t clinical or outsourced. It was part of life.

 But over the past century, we handed death over to "the professionals," and lost the rituals that helped us through.

Hayley West is busy reclaiming death for all of us. She knows all the important things about the end of life that we don't talk about.

If you want to learn about natural burial or water cremation, Hayley is your girl. She plans funerals and living wakes. She takes bodies to the crematorium in her hearse. She will even do your after-death paperwork. (How amazing is that, btw? My friend's dad is dying on the other side of the world and I so wish I could give her the gift of not having to do the paperwork when it's over).

Hayley's journey into death work has been a personal one. 

“I’ve had a lot of death in my life, since I was a child. I had seven significant deaths before the age of 40.

"When my sister died -- she drowned when she was three and I was six -- her photograph was taken out of the house and we didn't speak about her again."

Hayley wasn't allowed to go to her funeral. Her family was death denialist to the max.

Her uncle died in a drink driving accident at 21 and nobody talked about that either. She lost both of her parents in her 20s and 30s.

Unsurprisingly, themes of death crept into her art practice. She eventually went looking for answers and began researching. Hayley now a Master’s by research on the death industry and has become an advocate for natural burial.

She teaches people about all the options that were never shared with her, when her loved ones were dying.

"I have to remind myself that not everyone is used to normalising a conversation about death. I can be quite blunt when I talk to people. I have to really check myself, a lot," Hayley says. (I personally think the world needs more real talk, especially when it comes to mortality).

In Australia, almost 80% of people are cremated, but many don’t realise it’s not the most environmentally friendly option.

Water cremation or alkaline hydrolysis, which is Hayley's DJ name, is a gentler, low-impact process now legal in Tasmania. People are starting to advocate for human composting, which is legal in a number of U.S. states.

“Things are changing,” she says. “There are a lot of things people just don’t know about.”

People often ask Hayley: What's the best way to deal with a body after death?

"A natural, shrouded burial," Hayley says. (No coffin).

"Some people are still a bit freaked out by that. A biodegradable coffin is good, too. And you're not embalmed. Injecting something like formaldehyde is just no good for the environment.

"You only need 750 millimetres of soil above your body. You're not dug down six feet under."

The only place around Castlemaine where you can have a natural burial is the Chewton Cemetery. And it's very popular.

Hayley created an experiential artwork for Harvest festival in Glen Lyon where she dug a grave 750 milimetres under and had people lie in it and have a think about what they want the end to look like for them. 

"There are a lot of people who say to me, 'Oh, just chuck me in the wheelie bin and put me out. I don't care. I don't even want my ashes back,'" Hayley says.

 "But maybe the people left behind need something. I'm all for ceremony and ritual."

Maybe that's helping to prepare a loved one for burial like we did in the old days. Washing their feed or wrapping their body in a shroud.

“I kind of wish that was something that was offered to me during all those deaths I experienced," she says.

I wondered if working as a deathie has helped Hayley process the deaths of her people.

"I think I've gained more of an understanding of my family situation at that time, more than anything, and come to rest with that and feel comfortable about that," she says.

"My parents were new to Australia. I have Yeni Gypsy heritage back a couple of generations. Death is taboo in that culture. And being English, as well, and not talking about things, just getting on with life. There was a whole mix of different things that were happening in my family. It took a long time to kind of go, oh, actually, they're not just total bastards. There were reasons."

"But grief is such a huge monster. It never goes away. It just comes back at different points."

There’s no one right way to do death, but silence isn’t it.

"In the death space, there's this thing called Compassionate Communities and it's this idea that there's a whole set of people that help each other down the line from the person who's dying in the middle. I feel like we already do that here in Castlemaine quite well. I think regional places are really good at that."

After spending time with Hayley, who is just furiously empowering, I know I will be talking about death with my family. And possibly everyone I run into. 

Hayley says that if you need a nudge to get started on planning your exit, pick out ten good photos. The kind you’d want people to remember you by.

The rest, in life as it is in death, is entirely up to you.

PS. I'm 1,000% asking my parents to do the photo thing this weekend. xx

❀ Halp decorate this tree ❀

My friend Sherene, who co-hosts the award-winning Queer and Now show on MainFM, is crocheting like a queen and needs your help.

She is working with Dhelkaya Health and Castlemaine Secondary College to yarn bomb the high school’s courtyard gum tree for Wear it Purple Day, as a symbol of support and inclusion for LGBTQIA+ young people. 

If you can knit or crochet, get involved! Please donate squares or lengths of any size to the front office at CSC August 24th.

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