What is a natural burial and what’s the story behind them in Aotearoa? 

At the natural burial cemetery in Mākara, a young couple are soaking in the sun on the wooden bench seat overlooking a young forest of trees, recently planted, and admiring the sweeping valley view that rises up beyond the hillside. A lamb’s bleat floats up from the farmland down the valley and tūī swoop and sing in the mature section of the cemetery, where a medley of native trees are thriving.

As the first natural burial cemetery in Aotearoa, the Mākara site has paved the way for more New Zealanders to choose an environmentally friendly option for their death. 

In essence, a natural burial is about keeping to a set of principles to achieve an environmentally friendly death. Requirements of a natural burial include a shallow grave for optimum decomposition; using natural materials (like a coffin of untreated softwood); and a tree planted over the grave, with a wooden grave marker, instead of a monument.

The Mākara natural burial cemetery started in 2009 and sits on land adjacent to the traditional cemetery (you access it through the same road entrance). It’s laid out on sloping land and is home to approximately 500 graves with plenty of room for more. The cemetery will eventually become a living monument of woodland once all the trees have matured. 

It was instinct that told Mark Blackham, founder of Natural Burials NZ,  that some people might want to choose a burial that would connect their lives and bodies back to the earth and to the ecosystem. But in the late 90s in Aotearoa, a natural burial wasn’t an option and he didn’t know why. The experience of losing a child at birth prompted Blackham to start asking questions earlier than anyone would ever wish about natural burials and whether they could be a possibility for New Zealanders. 

Quickly he realised that New Zealand was far behind other countries like the UK who had adopted natural burials in the 90s, thanks to the work of organisations like the Natural Death Centre and individuals such as Cumbria Cemetery manager Ken West, who raised the notion of a woodland burial back in the 80s.

Armed with information from the UK, and with the help of friends and like-minded supporters, Blackham started calling every council in New Zealand to ask if they’d consider opening a natural burial cemetery. In New Zealand then, and now, only councils can set up cemeteries, unless you’re a religion. “And we did consider that,” laughs Blackham. “You only needed 25 people to sign up or something like that. But in the end for us it was about choice. We didn’t want any barriers in the way of people being able to consider a natural burial option.”

There were plenty of barriers in the way of Blackham and friends trying to carve the option into the landscape of the funeral industry. “Every single council was a straight up ‘no’,” says Blackham. And the reason they gave was that cemeteries were trouble. For councils, cemeteries mean maintenance and complaints (headstones fall over, nature does what nature does and grass and weeds need to be mown and clipped back into place). 

“It was so hard,” laughs Blackham ruefully. New Zealand in the 90s was stuck with antiquated ideas of what a burial was and could be. The principle behind natural burials is that the body is returned to earth as quickly and cleanly as possible: there are no headstones to maintain or grasses to mow because the trees planted over the burial sites are destined to become a forest.

After many years, and many different routes towards success, in 2008 Wellington City Council finally agreed to work with Blackham. But not without him having to spend his own money, and donated funds, to work through what a natural burial cemetery might look and feel like, and what the requirements would be. Part of the research involved talking to what is colloquially known as The Tennessee Body Farm. The Forensic Anthropology Centre at the University of Tennessee is used by the FBI, among others, to discover how exactly bodies decompose and in what conditions. 

There was also resistance, at first, from some within the funeral industry and associated businesses. “There are cost centres inside the funeral industry that were threatened by what we were proposing,” said Blackham. He remembers at public meetings that embalmers, monumental masons and some funeral directors would show up and oppose them, even mislead councils about the dangers of decomposing bodies (which Blackham could debunk thanks to his extensive and self-funded research). There is no legal requirement to embalm a body but most people, when faced with having to organise a funeral, don’t realise they have a lot more choice. 

Fiona King, funeral director at Broadbent and May, is passionate about natural burials. She is enthused when speaking about the beauty of the process and the environmental principles it enables. King, like Simon Manning (whom Blackham credits with being an early advocate among funeral directors, and an instinctive supporter of the right to have a natural burial option), was an early adopter, and whenever she receives a call from someone seeking her services she will offer cremation, traditional burial or a natural burial. “Some people mistakenly think I’m the only one who can offer a natural burial because I’m so passionate about it,” she says, “but any funeral director in the country can offer those options.”

Between 2008 and 2012 there were about five natural cemeteries set up around Aotearoa. Each one had to start from scratch, so Blackham found himself the unofficial expert at supporting councils on the ins and outs of what a natural burial requires and what a natural burial cemetery needs. “But after about 2013 there was a change of mood,” he says. “Councils started to call us up and ask for advice.”

These days, Blackham and friends are regularly fielding phone calls and email inquiries from members of the public curious about natural burials. “And I don’t want to let them down. I want to help people have a choice,” says Blackham, who holds down a full-time day job alongside his voluntary work. Part of the work, as he sees it, is changing attitudes towards death. “We’re the only animal that takes ourselves out of the ecosystem when we die,” he says. 

According to data from Wellington City Council, natural burials are catching on. In 2023, 13.23 per cent of burials were natural, which marks a slow but steady uptake. The majority of bodies these days are cremated, which is not great for the environment: when a body is burned its elements are turned into air pollutants. By contrast, in a natural burial the soil and the tree planted over the grave make quick work of the body and any coffin (untreated soft wood) and/or shroud (natural, untreated fibres) buried with it.

Fiona King says embalming is a common question when talking to clients about natural burials. The embalming fluid formaldehyde is a toxin and therefore is not part of the natural burial ethos. When people started to be able to travel more easily to attend funerals, embalming became normalised and necessary to preserve the body for viewing, explains King. 

Blackham says there is some evidence to show that it’s psychologically better for families to view a non-embalmed body. “The body doesn’t look like it’s asleep – it looks like it is dead,” he says. “What people need is to be prepared, and to have knowledge about what to expect. People need to know they have a lot more power in how they care for and bury their loved ones than they realise. Death is sad, it’s not bad,” he says.

Most people will call a funeral director when a family member dies. But people can actually manage their own burials if they want to (as described in this article on The Spinoff). “You can say you want the body to be at home for a couple of days, you can say you want to take the body to the grave,” says Blackham. 

According to Blackham, the main thing people need to understand is what to expect from a body that has died. “If you’re psychologically and practically ready, it’s not a great challenge,” he says, though it can help to have someone removed from the closest family, and ideally someone familiar with bodies (such as a nurse or care worker) to assist. When he talks about a family he helped manage their own natural burial, he is audibly moved: “It was so admirable, and heartening, and inspiring.” 

Blackham is passionate that we should have the option to manage our own deaths, and our own burials. He describes some alarm when, during Covid, the Ministry of Health reviewed the 1964 Burial Act, an aspect of the review was to look at a suggestion that only funeral directors could manage burials. But for Blackham that would have been a regressive move to embed into the system the idea that we can’t manage these fundamental parts of living ourselves.

For Blackham, King and other supporters of the natural burial movement, it’s about mental health as much as it is about the environment. “We have the capacity to deal with death,” says Blackham. “It’s just that our processes and cultural understanding is stuck in the 1800s.”

Blackham sees the impact of his work on the funeral industry at large. When he first started to ask questions about natural burials, nobody manufactured natural caskets. They were all particle chip and veneer and plastic handles. He had to seek out cabinet makers and convince them to make caskets as a side hustle so he could point people towards them. Others started to see that it was something they could do, and now, 20-odd years later, every manufacturer, even mainstream casket makers, offer a natural option which can be used in both traditional and natural burials.

Likewise, there is a fledgling shroud industry popping up. King says they are an increasingly popular option. “There is nothing freaky about carrying a shrouded body,” says Blackham, “but we’re not used to it, so it’s not normalised yet.”

For anyone curious about natural burials, here is a summary of the principles and the pragmatics. With thanks to Mark Blackham and Natural Burials, and Fiona King at Broadbent and May.

What is a natural burial?

The principle of a natural burial is that the body, and everything it is buried in, returns to earth as quickly and as cleanly as possible in order to avoid polluting the environment with our deaths and instead provide nutrients. When you sign up for a natural burial you sign a “pledge” that you will adhere, as much as you can, to the requirements, which include:

• A shallow grave: in natural burial sites bodies are buried at around 50 cm which is the depth at which decomposition works best, and fastest. The lower the body, the slower the decomposition process. In traditional burials, bodies are buried at six feet, but more bodies (for example, family members) can be stacked in the one grave and so end up being shallower. There is no law or scientific basis for deeper burials.
• The body is not embalmed: in traditional burials, bodies are embalmed using the carcinogenic chemical formaldehyde which can leach into the soil and pollute it.
• The body is (ideally) buried without artefacts: because the principle of a natural burial is to avoid any pollutants and non-biodegradable materials, bodies are ideally buried without metals (like jewellery). However, Blackham and King both say that of course sometimes artefacts are meaningful and important for families (for example, a child’s toy). Natural Burials are about mental health as well as environmental health so these guidelines are guides, not regulations. 
• The body is buried in a certified coffin or shroud: in New Zealand there is a list of approved coffins and biodegradable shrouds to be used in natural burial sites. The idea is that the material will also return to earth quickly and without introducing chemicals to the soil. This means there will ideally be no handles on the coffin and the wood will be untreated, sustainably grown soft wood. Shrouds also need to be biodegradable and made from natural fibres, like those made by Ake Ake Shrouds which is a certified maker for natural burial sites in Aotearoa. 
• Instead of a monument like in traditional cemeteries, a tree is planted: In New Zealand there is a list of approved indigenous trees for families to select from to plant over the grave of their dead. Natural burial cemeteries become, in effect, forests or gardens that can be attractive, active sites for the living. Biodegradable gravemarkers (like wooden posts) can be placed on the grave site.
  

Can bodies that received toxic treatment (like chemotherapy) while alive be buried in natural cemeteries?

Yes. However, people need to be aware that bodies that have received treatments such as chemotherapy tend to break down rapidly after death which reduces the  window available for viewing between death and burial. 

Who is doing all this certifying? 

Natural Burials (started by Mark Blackham) is a voluntary organisation that has, over 25 years, researched and compiled a set of ideal requirements for a natural burial in an effort to achieve clarity and consistency for Aotearoa natural cemeteries and the Councils that run them. There is no legal basis for the requirements but they are guidelines to help Councils and families adhere to the principles of a natural burial.

Where are natural burial cemeteries?
There is a list online at the Natural Burials website. There are 13 certified natural burial cemeteries, and seven uncertified ones (meaning they might not be consistent with Natural Burial protocols). 

Pros of a natural burial

If you are environmentally minded, a natural burial offers the option to have a positive impact on the environment.

Natural burial cemeteries are beautiful spaces for people to enjoy: they are essentially forests that foster the living (birds, plants, people).

For Councils, they require less maintenance. Paul Andrews, WCC manager Parks, Sport and Recreation, says the Mākara natural burial cemetery needs preliminary upkeep to enable easy access for burials and to care for the young trees planted over each site until they are established. After that, the vegetation is allowed to develop and the only ongoing maintenance is pest weeds and animal control which is routinely carried out in the Council’s forest areas.

“In comparison, maintenance requirements are much higher in traditional cemeteries,” he says, “either in the upkeep of paved or mown pathways between burial plots or in the regular mowing of the large, grassed areas in lawn cemeteries. Over time, as families cease to tend burial plots (although families are responsible for the maintenance), the community tends to expect the Council to take over at least some of that maintenance by default, adding to the long-term maintenance costs.” 

Andrews also notes that natural burials help to reduce the rate at which cemetery land is used up, because they can work well on steeper land that is unsuitable for traditional burials and cemetery layout: “Finding suitable and affordable land for cemeteries is a challenge in Wellington and most parts of the country.” 

Cons of a natural burial

Fiona King explains that, for some, the lack of ability to stack burials is an issue. In traditional cemeteries, families can be buried in the same grave site. This is achieved by stacking: the first person is buried deep, and the next buried on top. This isn’t possible in a natural burial cemetery due to the need for a shallow grave. It’s also not possible to pre-plot grave sites in a natural burial cemetery. For some families this is a problem, as they might want family members to be buried next to each other. 

King also says that some families need a monument which is also not possible in a natural burial cemetery. Instead, wooden markers (which are still able to be named and inscribed) are placed on the burial site. Over time they do wear down and decompose, but that does take a long time. King says that grave visitations decline after about five years. 

Cost of a natural burial

The cost of a natural burial is approximately the same as a traditional burial, though the cost of the grave site might be slightly more (by a couple of hundred dollars), depending on the cemetery. The total costs based on Wellington City Council comparisons are:

Adult plot on plaque lawn: $2,615 
Denominational areas: $3,251
Natural burial: $3,434

Families may end up spending more on natural burials compared to traditional burials where you can stack burials in the same grave site. A second interment costs $1,250 (Wellington City Council cost) but in a natural burial you’d be paying the above ($3,434) again. 

Further information

Here is a useful Q&A on the Natural Burials website; and a fact sheet by Wellington City Council. 
There is a book on natural burials available also from the Natural Burials website for $22.
Broadbent and May have a useful summary and guide to natural burials on their website.
Natural Burials has a summary of research page which offers external books and websites for further reading.