At 7 pm on Friday, as the Whittlesea community gathers to observe one minute’s silence to remember the devastating Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, the wind will carry the silent prayers and memories of those touched by the disaster.
The remembrance service marking the fifth anniversary of the fires which claimed 173 lives has been co-ordinated by the Whittlesea Community Resilience Committee (WCRC) and will be held in the Whittlesea Community Garden.
The service will feature short speeches, including one by Whittlesea mayor Mary Lalios and a performance by the Whittlesea Township Choir.
Residents will have an opportunity to read poems or stories or offer floral tributes.
WCRC member Kerry Clarke says the event will be informal.
“It will be very simple, very unofficial, just people getting together,” she said last week.
“People want to remember on their own in a quiet, respectful way.”
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The low-key memorial event will be just one of many to be held across the region.
The Eltham Library Community Gallery will host an exhibition and memorial service co-ordinated by artists from Butterfly Studio in Christmas Hills, a purpose-built space for healing artists who began to gather after the bushfires.
Ona Henderson, a trained art therapist and practising artist of 30 years, said the group of artists got together and handcrafted five pods from natural materials to represent each local community affected by the fires.
Between this Thursday and Monday, the community is being invited to write a simple word of reflection, inspiration or gratitude and place it in one of the pods.
“The idea is that anyone who feels inspired will write on them a message of gratitude or whatever it may be, and after the exhibition the pod contents will be planted in a perpetual sunflower garden at the studio,” Ms Henderson said.
Meanwhile, the Blacksmiths Tree’s relocation to Strathewen has been pushed back until late February to protect the sensitivities of the Strathewen community leading up to the fifth anniversary.
Project co-ordinator Amanda Gibson said that if everything went to plan, the tree — built by blacksmiths from around Australia — would be installed at the end of the month.
“We’ve decided to hold off,” she said.
“We want people to come and see the tree, but what we’re trying to say is, please be mindful because it’s a community still in healing.”
