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So here we are, one year on from ‘Black Saturday’. Many of those most directly affected still feel unable to take part in the many events set up to mark the day – it’s all too raw still. Even the sound of media choppers overhead has an unwelcome association with that day.

For others, attempts to use memorial services, music, art and media to process the horrific events of that day began early. A televised memorial service was held 15 days after the disaster. This seemed a very short amount of time to allow – the body count was still being established, and communities were being threatened with new bushfires. However, it was sensitively done and hosted with sober empathy by ABC News Victoria anchor Ian Henderson.

An art exhibition was put together from melted remnants just 7 weeks after the fires. Way too soon. And the image, below-left, of the artist curled up atop a burned-out Holden must have been deeply upsetting to many. Ali Griffin had lost her home in the fires. But the subject matter she was dealing with was loss of life, and that’s something else again.

A wander round Borders turns up no shortage of coffee table books on Black Saturday. Commerce. It can immediately sully things. Original intent can be lost in the translation to a retail commodity, the sale of which nets several parties a profit. The print, above-right, is available right now from tradingpost.com.au. 20% of proceeds go to charity, so I guess that’s one up on most of the books. But I find it hard to get my head around the concept of choosing to be reminded of Black Saturday every time you walked past it.

Aftermath is a song penned by StellaQ just three days after the fires. An acoustic guitar backs Stella’s poignant lyrics, as she sings of her brother’s fight to save his home from the flames. I found it on the Contribute section of abc.net.au, which is full of posts, images and video relating to the February Bushfires. You can hear the track in full on Stella’s MySpace page. Continuing a tradition spanning human history, folk music transitions events into folklore.

Images: ABC, Channel 7, and as linked