About Chi Chi Menendez

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I’m Chi Chi Menendez, founder of the Dying Well. I'm a Death Walker living in Mullumbimby on Arakwal Country, in the Northern Rivers of NSW. 

I offer non-medical, compassionate support for those navigating the end of life. Whether you’re planning ahead, actively dying, or caring for someone who is, I can walk beside you during these moments in your life. I can help with practical preparation, emotional support and connections to local services and providers. 

My own experiences with loss and grief opened me to the beauty, complexity, and necessity of being present at the end of life. I believe we all deserve care, clarity, as we die, and that communities heal and benefit when we face death with courage and compassion.

This vocation arose from my own lived experiences with death and dying. After the sudden death of my brother. The grief initiated what Jung called a "dark night of the soul" a spiritual rupture that shifted the course of my life. I sought tools for healing, turning to Vipassana, Buddhism, yoga, and mythic traditions. What I found was not closure, but a calling: to serve others in the liminal spaces of end of life, dying and grief.

As a Ceremonialist and Ritualist, I believe good ceremony can aid in healthy bereavement. Sometimes rituals can be helpful before or after the funeral, or even many years later. Each person is unique and has unique circumstances. I craft and facilitate Grief rituals and ceremony.

THE DYING WELL PODCAST:  Interviews with death workers, artists, and spiritual practitioners

DEATH CONVERSATIONS: Free community gatherings fostering death literacy through open dialogue

DEATH MATTERS: End of Life planning Workshops

DEATH & DYING EXPO:  An annual public event in Mullumbimby  connecting community with resources

MULLUMBIMBY DEATH CAFE: A welcoming space for informal discussions about death

RITUAL OBJECTS: A ceramics studio co-founded to create urns and ceremonial vessels for remembrance

UNDERLAND:  An ongoing fine art photography and performance  series exploring grief and mythic underworlds

Ritual Objects Studio was co-founded by Chi Chi Menendez and her husband Jim Preece. 

Ritual Objects is primarily a ceramic studio dedicated to creating vessels that hold memory, meaning, and transformation. Our work sits at the intersection of art, craft, and ritual, an exploration of what it means to honour grief, mortality, and the enduring presence of those we’ve lost.

We craft ceremonial vessels  and urns designed for both public ritual and private remembrance. Drawing on the tradition of memento mori, objects that remind us of death, we create pieces that invite reflection, reverence, and emotional intimacy.

Each piece is one-of-a-kind, formed slowly by hand using traditional techniques and experimental processes. Our practice embraces imperfection and earth-based materials as metaphors for the human condition, fragile, resilient, and forever marked by the stories we carry.

Ritual Objects is not just a studio, but a virtual space for mourning, myth-making, and meaning-making. We believe that art has the power to hold grief, and that beautiful, intentional objects can become companions in the rituals of letting go, remembering, and healing.