V07 Civil Celebrants: What are we?
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Untitled Document
Opinion
I am intrigued by the concept of celebrancy as a profession... occupation.... craft.... or what?
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The following descriptions of celebrancy have been paraphrased from the speech that the President of the Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants, Lance Tapsell, delivered at Government House in Adelaide recently, at the annual AFCC conference, as part of his response to the Governor of SA.
Other celebrants refer to themselves as ceremony specialists, or performance artists, or professional celebrants – how do you categorise yourself?
It has been argued that: |
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Celebrants are part of the wedding industry – yet there is no celebrant industry. We are a critical part of weddings, but also of funerals, commitment ceremonies and naming ceremonies, and a whole range of other celebrations of life but do we industriously churn out ceremonies?
Industry tends to connote mass production of common items. |
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Celebrants are allied to government through registration, ethics, codes of practice and legal responsibilities hand accountabilities – but celebrants are not civil servants, and certainly get none of the conditions of employment of civil servants. It has been argued in the past about whether this is ethical, right and appropriate, but at this stage we sit within government for our registrations and guidelines, but outside in terms of implementation of our celebrant businesses. |
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Celebrants engage in professional practices – yet celebrancy is not a profession, according to some. The AFCC in particular takes pride in its approach to professionalism, and maintains that engaging in professional practices is critical to our long-term success. I wonder though if the concept of professional practices relates more to our administrative and business expertise, or more to the performance side of things. There is an uneasy relationship about what constitutes 'professional' and in what particular areas |
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Celebrants require TAFE training and registration – yet celebrancy is not a trade.
With changes to the training program next year, and a full Certificate IV in Celebrancy on offer, we live in interesting times as we observe how this changes the face of civil celebrancy. |
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Celebrants aspire to quality performances – yet celebrancy is not a performance art nor are celebrants acknowledged as artists in their field.
We adopt many performance skills, and usually add that word 'professional' into the mix when describing quality celebrants, yet each 'performance' is unique, and each client has different needs. |
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Celebrants practice ceremony craft and regularly show their skill and expertise – yet celebrants are rarely given recognition within society as a craftsman or woman. A craft implies the use of skills, often manual or physical dexterity and accomplished abilities and techniques and/or even acknowledged skills in a trade or profession. Our high ideals of craftsmanship show up in every ceremony we do - yet are rarely appreciate or recompensed appropriately for the levels of expertise that are part of the ceremony. |
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Celebrants are ceremony and ritual specialists – but are certainly not paid specialist wages, and nor could all of us necessarily be deemed to have the same level of specialist expertise. |
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| So what are we? |
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How do we categorise ourselves? |
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Nancy Batenburg
Marriage & Civil Celebrant
Vice President AFCC
Darwin NT |
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NB Our thanks to Nancy once again for her contribution to our Letters and Opinion pieces. ACCN Director,
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Your opinions on the above or any celebrancy related matter would be most appreciated.
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