A state funeral for Russell Jack, featuring the county's mourning lion, will be held in Bendigo
A state funeral for Russell “Jack” AM, founder of the Golden Dragon Museum, will be held on August 29 in Bendigo, Australia. The funeral will include a traditional Cantonese ceremony featuring a white mourning lion. Jack’s family believes this may be the first public ceremony of its kind in over a century in this regional city in the state of Victoria.
Russell Goldfield (Louis Yeng Man) Jack passed away on August 11. He led the Bendigo Chinese Association for many years and founded the Golden Dragon Museum to ensure that the traditions brought to the Bendigo goldfields by generations of Chinese Australians would be preserved and passed on to future generations. In 1993, Jack was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the preservation of Bendigo’s Chinese heritage and culture.
A white mourning lion will accompany Jack during the private ceremony. It will then be transported from William Farmer Funeral Directors to the elders’ hall at the Golden Dragon Museum, where a blessing of the family altar will be performed. Afterward, the lion will accompany Jack to the Ulumbarra Theater, where family, friends, and community members will gather, and later to the Bendigo Cemetery.
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At the cemetery, Bendigo residents will be invited to witness the final rites and participate in the memorial service. The deceased’s daughter, Anita Jack, explained that the white mourning lion is also known as the “lion of filial piety”: it is associated with mourning, respect for the family, and the final farewell to the deceased. Traditionally, such lions appear at the funerals of respected elders, masters, and community leaders, performing solemn bows and kneeling gestures before the deceased.
The mourning lion was crafted by Hong Kong master Hui Ka Hung of Hung C Lau, who also created the imperial dragon Dai Gum Loong, presented in Bendigo in 2019. Anita Jack traveled to Hong Kong to pay her respects to the master and receive this lion as a gift from him.
Attendees will be invited to light incense in memory of Russell Jack. In accordance with Cantonese funeral customs, the family will also present attendees with a coin and sweets as they leave the ceremony. The public memorial service at the Ulumbarra Theater will begin at 11:00 a.m., with doors opening at 9:45 a.m.
