Sarah Broanda, 22, is Queensland’s youngest embalmer, and part of a growing cohort of young women taking up careers in the traditionally male-dominated funeral industry.
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00:00 Sarah Rwanda was just 19 when she decided she wanted to be an embalmer.
00:06 Now she spends her days surrounded by dead bodies.
00:10 I went to a couple of funerals actually and yeah, it just really looked like an interesting job role.
00:17 It involves preserving corpses for repatriation or viewings.
00:23 She felt at ease from day one.
00:25 I look after the general preparation of people's loved ones, so washing, dressing, casketing, cosmetics, fingerprints, hair, locks of hair, everything like that.
00:37 The now 22-year-old from Townsville is among a growing number of young women taking up jobs in the funeral industry.
00:44 It's definitely a calling. I think you need to have some very strong attributes to be able to work in the industry
00:51 and I think empathy and compassion are definitely two of those.
00:55 Australia's latest cohort of newly qualified embalmers is made up entirely of women.
01:01 It's a big change for an industry traditionally dominated by men and older people.
01:07 We need people that come in with fresh eyes. How do you think that this should be done?
01:11 What are your ideas for saying farewell?
01:13 To have young people come in and help us through that, oh it's just, it's a revelation and it's just a breath of fresh air.
01:20 For Ms Rowanda, days in the mortuary are far from morbid.
01:24 It's so rewarding to make a beneficial last impact for people in their worst time of grief.
01:32 [silence]