MUM

“Suddenly I just didn't know who I was without that anymore. It was a real unmooring. But I think that I felt completely untethered to this world. I had nothing holding me here anymore, and that was really weird. I did not expect that. I think I expected to be sad about my dad being gone, but I don't think I expected—I literally do not know who I am anymore, and I don't know what my at...

“What I've learned through this work is that I can allow the emotion, the energy, to be in motion. And when I make space for that, it goes away. Even grief. Grief can take longer. There's no time frame here, but it is what it is. But if I can soften and allow that wave to come over me and I give space for it to show up, to reach the peak of the experience and to discharge, I can function m...

“I think part of just the way we're raised or our society is like, oh, well, at least we tried everything we could. I think it's that old adage of, well, we tried everything. Well, sometimes it's not about that. It's not about trying all the medications till you've basically just worn your body out. It's about maybe giving yourself the last few months to just kind of enjoy...

“I feel so clearly called to death and birth work in this primal way of, like, this is what I'm here for now. All of the logistics of capitalism have not been mastered and would love to put the onus of mastery to someone else to just make it possible for me to do this. Because this feels so like even the gentle way that I'm sometimes feeling guided to death work in this place. I love old p...

“This particular residency was a thematic one, and the theme was titled Meeting for Teas. So it drew artists curators and thinkers from all over. We all had this time and space to sit with Tea independently, sit with Tea communally, and talk about tea in all the different ways, including decolonizing as an aspect of tea and tea culture. And I couldn't stop crying the first two weeks when I was...

“As someone even on the journey, and I know there are many people who may hear this transmission who really feel like this aligns with them, but there's a piece that I have around knowing Jaxon. His essence, his frequency, and his beautiful soul are always present there, no matter what his physical experience is going to be. And that I know, whatever direction we go, whatever decision my siste...

“Grief can come in all forms of different emotions and expressions. And so we express it in the community, right? You can do it by yourself, but I think it's cool to do it with a friend or in the community because then you witness each other. And that's the ancestral way we're supposed to grieve together and not get freaked out about me screaming and losing my… if you're weeping an...

"I think it's important as an elder queer person and I wear that very proudly, that I do think our stories are important because I didn't come from a place that where we had these tools. So as an elder queer person, it's also not too f*****g late for me to honor it now, right? And to go living this next however long on this plane as my authentic self, including name. And to just d...

"What does it mean to live uninhibited, especially knowing that your time is coming to an end? I held space for people who are my own age. I held space for people who were older than me. Numerous diagnosis also like Alzheimer's and dementia. And it really made me slow down and learn to be present. I would show up in these spaces. I'd be going into people's homes, I'd be going...

"We hear celebration of life in reference to funerals when it comes to people's death. And I don't think we should wait until someone dies to celebrate their life. We should learn to celebrate now ourselves, the people we love. Also, why do I have to wait to die to rest in peace?" Lily Truong is an existential Earthling existing as a first-generation Vietnamese-American queer fem...

"If we can be with aging, we can also be with death. Right. Like, they go hand in hand. I feel like aging and death are sisters. They're sisters. One moves slow and one moves fast, but they walk on the same path." In this episode, Xochitl Kusikuy Ashe – a 5th generation Peruvian medicine woman and Ellen's mentor – shares about her relationship with death and how it has been a tea...

In this first ever episode of Mum, host Ellen Wong shares her journey in befriending Grief, supported by the sacred mushroom, after decades of escaping and resisting. She breaks her silence through the inception of Mum and invites you along on this journey in meeting the many deaths of our lives through stories, liberating ourselves to live LOUD and preparing ourselves to meet the end of life with...

Death is a vital part of life. It marks the end of every day and season. It’s present in every exhale and goodbye. It guides you through all your life transitions. Death initiates you into change – the only constant in life. Without it, there would be no growth, no new chapters, no expansion, no transformation. Each of us are the heroes in our own journeys. We face our fears as we walk into these...