Max Jones
With his roots stretching into the Scottish Highlands and further still to Uppsala in the Land
of Skadi, Max Jones has spent his life climbing amongst the branches of his World Tree. This enterprise has afforded him precious glimpses as to what lies beyond the relative comfort of his own grove and the hill upon which it stands.
With wonder and mystery as his constant companions he has traveled to 56 countries in the
known world and several more in the less known, most notably, the UnderWorld. And it has been here, in the light-deprived belly beneath all “this” that so much has been discovered. With grief, and its counterpart love by his side, does he now move through the world. This has mobilised his days, focused his attention, and catalysed his ability to be responsive to these troubling times From this place will he speak about the BoneYard. Max lives in the Marahau Valley with his wife and two feral sons. When he is not allowing himself to
be troubled by some thing or the other, he can be found in his workshop crafting leather into finery, smoking his ole briarwood pipe, and sipping Yerba mate from a gourd. Other feathers in his Fedora are: ceremonialist, rites of passage facilitator for males, cranial-sacral practitioner, and ancestor worshiper.
The Boneyard: Death, grief, and elderhood in a time of sorrow.
This presentation will attempt to paint an authentic picture of our collective situation as a culture and species. How is it that we now find ourselves at the cliff’s edge awash and replete with information, technology, and old people yet utterly bereft of anyone to turn to for support based on experience and wisdom? What is the function of elderhood? Who are the elders and where can they be found?
How has our impoverished relationship with death shaped us and ultimately, disabled us? What role does grief have in the nuts and bolts and slings and arrows of this troubled time?
And what of our ancestors, those who have gone before us, from whom we descend and owe so much to? Where do they stand and where is their place amongst us?
This is an invitation to be trouble allowed. To ask the hard questions and begin the walk to becoming an ancestor worthy of remembering.