Funeral Commons

About Funeral Commons

Funeral Commons is a funeral social enterprise for people and planet. We help families create meaningful, personal funerals with clear guidance, transparent pricing and environmentally responsible choices.

Our story

Funeral care that honours a person and the world they leave behind.

Through her work as a funeral director, celebrant, counsellor and psychotherapist, founder Olivia Andrews became increasingly aware of the environmental impact of death and funerals. What happens to our bodies, the materials we use and the way a funeral is arranged can all form part of our final gift to the planet.

She founded Funeral Commons to offer families a personal and participatory approach to funeral care, while making lower-impact choices easier to understand and access.

Our purpose is simple: to make sustainable death care accessible to every body.

Why “Commons”?

Funeral explains what we do. Commons explains why we exist.

A commons is something shared and cared for collectively. For Funeral Commons, it means sharing knowledge, widening choice and connecting families with people and services they can trust.

Our approach is grounded in:

  • Community
  • Compassion
  • Connection
The Funeral Commons open C symbol
Our open C symbol represents inclusivity, care and connection. Its leaf-like detail reflects renewal and respect for the natural cycle of life.

Our wider purpose

Funeral Commons commits to reinvesting the majority of any profits into:

  • Grief and mental health support
  • Funeral assistance for families experiencing financial hardship
  • Environmental regeneration
Learn about our impact

Our people

The people behind Funeral Commons.

Olivia Andrews, Founder & Director

Olivia Andrews

Founder & Director

Olivia Andrews is the founder and director of Funeral Commons and a member of its Advisory Board. Based in Sydney's Inner West, she is a funeral director and celebrant, and a PACFA Clinical Registrant specialising in palliative and bereavement psychotherapy.

Her work brings together funeral care, therapeutic support and ceremony. Olivia helps families understand their options and participate in ways that feel right for them. She creates and leads secular ceremonies and can also arrange services of any denomination, working respectfully with clergy and faith communities.

Alongside Funeral Commons, Olivia founded Llumus Care, where she provides counselling and psychotherapy for people experiencing serious illness, dying, grief and major life transitions. She is also trained as an end-of-life doula.

Since 2022, Olivia has worked with the Sacred Heart Community Palliative Care Biography Service at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney as a volunteer biographer and former Co-Manager, supporting people receiving palliative care to reflect on and preserve their life stories.

Danni Petkovic, Mortality Doula & Advisory Board Member

Danni Petkovic

Mortality Doula & Advisory Board Member

Danni Petkovic is a death literacy educator, mortality doula and founder of Liminal Being. Her work sits with people as they are dying, and with the people who love them, creating space for the conversations, memories and rituals that matter most before it is too late to have them.

Danni believes death is a natural part of life and a profound human experience, not a medical failure. Modern healthcare, however, can shift the focus from comfort and peace to ongoing tests and treatments. For this reason, her work extends to teaching medical and creative therapy students to engage with death as a human experience. She also volunteers at Bear Cottage Children's Hospice and holds a stewardship role with the Good Death Impact Network.

Danni believes Funeral Commons offers something Australia needs: transparent pricing, natural burial and a commitment to reinvest the majority of profits into care rather than shareholders. She is part of Funeral Commons because death literacy and access go together.

Death may be our one human commonality, but it is not yet equal.

Advisory Board

Advice, constructive challenge and accountability.

The Funeral Commons Advisory Board brings together experience across funeral care, death literacy, environmental sustainability, public policy, community engagement and governance.

The board provides advice, constructive challenge and accountability as Funeral Commons develops. Olivia Andrews and Danni Petkovic serve on the board alongside Rebecca Lyons and Andrea Fernandes.

Rebecca Lyons, Advisory Board member

Rebecca Lyons

Rebecca Lyons is an end-of-life doula, independent funeral director, author, death-care educator and advocate. She entered the funeral industry in 2011 and became an independent funeral director and doula in 2018.

Bec was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake international research and report on changes and disruptions in the end-of-life space, which culminated in her book, A Heartfelt Undertaking. In 2022, Bec was selected as one of ten speakers to give a TEDx Talk on home funerals.

She has been President of the Natural Death Advocacy Network since 2020 and remains the founding President of the Australian Home Funeral Alliance.

Bec spends much of her time in the community, educating, demystifying and teaching people how they can do things themselves. She frames this as social justice work and is always willing to support others to do the same. That is how she came to be invited to serve as an adviser to Funeral Commons.

Andrea Fernandes, Advisory Board member

Andrea Fernandes

Andrea has over 20 years of public policy and engagement experience that places community empowerment at the centre of her work.

Andrea has advised government and non-government organisations and produced results that benefit the public interest. This includes people who are dying and the services and options available to them after they die, as well as grieving families and friends at a vulnerable time.

Andrea would like to contribute her skills to a growing movement in Australia that seeks to provide total death care for all Australians in accordance with their personal values and spirituality, transparently and affordably. Funeral Commons is particularly special in that it meets the needs of people wanting a sustainable end-of-life experience in the most natural way.

Born overseas, Andrea has made Sydney her home for 30 years. She holds a BA (Hons) in Economic and Social Studies and an MA in International Development and Human Rights Law.

An older couple laughing together as they walk hand in hand through parkland

Start with a conversation

Whether you are arranging a funeral, planning ahead or simply wanting to understand your choices, we are here to help.

Connect with us
  • Community
  • Compassion
  • Connection