Averil’s PhD project explores the cultural meanings and practices associated with cremated human remains to determine how ashes are thought about, talked about, and treated. Disposition of human remains touches every culture forming social narratives around identity of the deceased, whether society is indifferent or care, who is remembered or forgotten, what is respectful or abhorrent, and the culturally appropriate rituals for the dead. How people treat their dead reveals our humanity.
Averil is an indigenous researcher, works full-time helping students succeed at university, and is a mature student herself. She has intriguing conversations about cremated remains and can be found haunting cemeteries and columbaria in Southeast Queensland.
Research Interests: cremated remains, cultural homelands, cultural identity, Death Studies, indigenising research, migrant experiences, public policy, Thanatology
Qualifications:
2019 Master of Arts (research), Griffith University
Thesis: Tūpuna: Māori in Australia divided in death
2010 Masters of Public Policy, Victoria University of Wellington
Research project: Policy group sub-cultures
Research project: The effect of sub-cultures on policy agendas
2007 Grad Certificate of University Teaching, Massey University
2003 Bachelor of Business Management, Massey University
Publications
2025 Textbook Chapter: Post-mortem identities of Māori cremated remains
The decolonisation of death studies
2019 Thesis: Tūpuna: Māori in Australia divided in death
Conferences
2025 Exploring the ontological gap in identities of cremated remains.
Centre for Death and Society Conference 2025: Death and Transitions, Bath, UK
2023 This sounds weird but: volunteered stories of cremated remains.
The Association for the Study of Death Society (ASDS), DDD16 (Death Dying and Disposition) Conference, Padova, Italy
A Seussian Experiment.
School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Postgraduate Conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
2021 Partnering with external HDR supervisors.
HERDSA Conference Roundtable, Brisbane, Australia
2018 Identity associated with Māori cremated remains
Humanities, Languages and Social Science Emerging Scholars Day, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
2017 Making the invisible visible. Academic Language and Learning Conference, Geelong, Victoria, Australia