'Christchurch is my tomb': From homelessness to hopelessness
The article chronicles the tragic life and death of Caitlin McDonald, who documented her experience with homelessness in Christchurch through hundreds of YouTube videos. Her story highlights the harsh realities of transience and the lack of support for those living on the streets.
Why it matters
This personal narrative brings human visibility to the systemic issue of homelessness and the mental health challenges faced by vulnerable populations.
Tormented by transience, Caitlin McDonald's life was as fragile and fleeting as the butterflies she saved from the street. Surviving less than two years homeless in Christchurch, she chronicled her journey in hundreds of YouTube videos filmed on her phone. Jean Edwards reports on her tragic metamorphosis from radiant spirit to rough sleeper, dead at 47.
On a cold Christchurch night, Caitlin McDonald curls up in a big op shop suitcase and closes the lid like a coffin.
Homeless and bone-tired, a church graveyard seems as good a resting place as any.
St Peter's floodlit façade casts a warm orange glow, giving a cosy illusion of comfort, while gargoyles watch on from above.
"I don't know what the etiquette is for sleeping on people's graves," she later tells the camera in a video posted on YouTube.
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