Hinduism is one of the oldest and largest religions worldwide, with many traditions and customs.
Forty-seven kilometres west of Melbourne you will find the city of Melton which where around 25,000 Hindus live.
The Sri Durga Temple is a 12-minute drive away from Melton and was erected back in 2001, which was the reason for the growth of Hindu individuals around that area.
By 2026 Melton will be the home of the largest cemetery in Victoria in 100 years, the Harkness Cemetery.
The designs were put together by the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT), with hopes to connect people, nature, and the community.
“The 128-hectare park will offer diverse, sustainable, traditional and emerging burial, memorial and cremation options,” says the trust.
For the Hindu community end of life practices are one of their most prominent traditions and they are very specific with many different aspects.
When the Hindu community approached the GMCT about implementing open-air funeral pyres, they explained that it was not something that would be considered for the first 15 years.
According to James Reid who is GMCT’s Chief Future Built Environment Officer, they will not be offering cremation of any sort for a decade and a half.
But as a trust, they created the alternative of adding viewing rooms to the Altona and Fawkner cemeteries, “so that the Hindu and Sikh community can view cremations”, while they look at other ways that they can modify their services to meet their traditional needs.
According to Melton Hindu resident Vivek Sharma, there is a 13-day journey after the loss of a loved one with the cremation within the first 24 hours and different ceremonies throughout the 13 days. This means that viewing rooms a not a suitable alternative for them.
Member for Western Victoria, Joe McCracken has been working closely with the community from the Sri Durga Temple and fulfilling his role as a representative, discussing this issue in Parliament meetings, but unfortunately, the final decision comes down to the trust.
“We are very proudly a multicultural community…we don’t have specific supermarkets for religions or hospitals for particular ethnicities so I find it odd that they would want to designate a different site when they can just include it,” McCracken said.
Without access to traditional memorial services, Hindu families are left to follow Western burial and cremation practices.
Sharma explained that when a Hindu individual dies, their whole family dies as they are unable to say goodbye to their loved one in a dignified way.
“I met a lady who said, if my friend saw how her final burial was done, she would die again,” Sharma said.
Melton’s Hindu Community has been involved with the community in many ways.
Throughout COVID they provided meal services for the whole of the community, not specifically just their community.
Every Sunday the temple offers lunch services for the whole community and within the temple they take food donations for anyone who needs it to come.
They have also been running a blood donation for the past 15 years at the temple that gets transferred over to the Red Cross.
After providing so much support over the years all they are asking for is the same in return from the Melton community and the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust.
The community at the Sri Durga Temple have sourced their own architect and is asking the trust to set aside 4-5 acres, for their initial design that is currently in the works.
For now, the future of traditional end-of-life practices for the Hindu community in Melton hangs in the balance, but Joe McCracken and the Hindu residents will continue to fight for an appropriate way to lay their family members to rest.
