Salem Multicultural Institute and Salem Health have teamed up to investigate how different local cultural heritage communities perceive cultural concepts associated with the process of dying. The exhibit displaying the results will open at the World Beat Gallery at 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 5, and remains open through to January 2013.

The End of Life …. Cultural Perspectives on Mortality is a journey through narrative interviews with local community members representing Hispanic, Russian Old Believer, Micronesian Islander, and Ukrainian cultures. The results give an insight into how culture plays a role in the different stages of death, including the time immediate prior to death, customs immediately following a death, and how people remember and honor loved ones.

Graham Morris, executive director at Salem Multicultural Institute states, “Our World Beat Gallery exhibit gives a snapshot of how individuals see customs and traditions from their native cultural heritages play out as a loved one passes on. The exhibit does not capture all thought from these cultures, but rather tells the stories as seen through the eyes of individuals from each cultural heritage background that live in the Salem area today. We appreciate the support Salem Health and all of our partners from the cultural communities we explore have given us. We are excited to open the exhibit, and welcome the public to the Gallery to visit and discover for themselves.” 

“Anyone who has watched a loved one die will tell you those hours remain etched forever. The memories may be beautiful and sacred or frightening and dark,” said Dr. Nancy Boutin, a palliative medicine specialist with Salem Health. “Many of us in modern American culture have little experience with death. We may not know what we’re supposed to do or say—even doctors and nurses. Add in the complexity of language and cultural differences and caregivers risk turning a sacred experience into a dark one. This exhibit offers the health care community, and the Salem community in general, insight into what constitutes ‘a good death’ in the eyes of our multicultural neighbors.”

The World Beat Gallery is situated on the second floor of the Reed Opera House at 189 Liberty St NE in downtown Salem. The Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.