Weaving Art, Indigenous Story and Culture and Ministry

Presented by Rev Glenn Loughrey

Eremos Online Annual General Meeting and end of year gathering

Sunday 26th November 2023, 2:00 – 4:15 pm AEDT

Registrations are still open for this event. Click on Purchase Tickets to register. The Zoom link will be in your registration confirmation. If you have difficulty registering, email events@eremos.org.au and include your mobile number and location. 

Glenn’s presentation will begin approximately 2:45 AEDT after the AGM, which starts at 2 pm. 

We are delighted that Glenn has agreed to offer this presentation for Eremos as part of our AGM and end of year gathering. Glenn will speak about the multiple threads of art, indigenous story and culture, and his ministry.

As an artist with a particular interest in exploring identity and story through the visual arts, he will share his experience an indigenous man and priest. Glenn is deeply engaged in the dialogue for treaty, sovereignty, reconciliation and self-determination for First Nation peoples and his reflections are likely to include the referendum for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

The online event will include time for questions and discussion.

About the guest speaker

Rev. Canon A/Prof Glenn Loughrey is a Wiradjuri man. He is an artist and leader at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University in Canberra and the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne's Educator and Advocate for the Voice.

Glenn is also the chairperson of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council, the vicar of St Oswald's in Glen Iris and artist in residence at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne. Glenn shares more of his story and recent experiences ‘On the Road with the Referendum’ on his blog: https://www.redshoeswalking.net/

He is an author of two books: ‘On Being Blackfella's Young Fella: Is Being Aboriginal Enough?’ (2020) and ‘Another Time Another Place: Towards An Australian Church’ (2019) https://www.glennloughrey.com/books

This event is open to all and free for Eremos members or $15/$10 (conc.) for non-members.

Bookings essential.

Register by selecting ‘purchase tickets’. Your online registration assists our volunteer team but if you have difficulty you can register by email to events@eremos.org.au. If emailing, please include your name, location, and phone number.

There is no fee for Eremos members registering if you are logged into the website.

All registrants will receive the link by email in advance.

Glenn as Artist

Glenn describes his art as “an expression of my journey of my family and my mob. It reflects the interaction between the dominant culture and the oldest living culture on the planet. It explores the impact of that interaction from the Indigenous point of view and its purpose is to engage, challenge and initiate action leading to unification and reconciliation.”

"Covid 1770 - What Happened When Cook Sneezed" was a finalist in the 66th Blake Art Prize 2020.

Artwork supplied by Glenn

He continues, “I use a combination perspective and pattern thinking to form the narrative painted using acrylic paints applied by stick each dot at a time. The paint is mixed in such a way that the dots sit out from the canvas creating a tactile three-dimensional pattern. Each painting invites the viewer to touch and engage beyond simply being a viewer or observer. This reflects the idea of pattern thinking: that there are patterns below the country, above the country and across the country.”

My art is political because I believe all of life is political if lived consciously or mindfully, or as I understand Aboriginal thinking, with deep listening (whin-nga-rra) to the country or the dirt that gave you birth. My art does not consist of pieces intended to only stand alone. They reflect a continuum of deep listening and form an anthology of being.”

Source: https://www.christinejoycuration.com.au/glenn-loughrey.html

Glenn’s Ministry

Glenn is presently the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne’s Educator and Advocate for the Referendum for the Recognition of First People in the Australian Constitution and an enshrined Voice to Parliament and the Executive Government.

He has worked in many different places and fields including: setting up the outreach ministry for the Salvation Army in Brisbane; a decade in business as the director of a company providing services to non-profit organisations; developed a support program for students at a school in a lower socioeconomic environment in Brisbane; setting up the first welfare service with in the Royal Australian Navy at HMAS Kuttabul, Sydney; as a chaplain in a school in northern NSW, and now as a Vicar of a local church.

He has pioneered performance and visual arts as a tool for working with disadvantaged youth having studied at the Marcel Marceau School of Mime in Paris.

Source: https://www.redshoeswalking.net/about/

In 2021, Loughrey became the first Indigenous canon in the 142-year history of St Paul's Cathedral, the Anglican church in the heart of Melbourne's CBD.

Being appointed canon recognises Loughrey, an artist, author and vicar of the St Oswald's Anglican Church in Glen Iris, for his service to the Anglican church.

Loughrey designed a series of glass panels for the narthex screen, or cathedral entrance, depicting the traditional lands on which the cathedral stands. He said he wanted to prompt people to think more deeply about where and what they were standing on when they entered the building, because "you have to remember you're walking still on Wurundjeri country".

"They are in-the-moment, contemporary windows — they're not just showing you something that was here, but what's here now, and that is having a conversation to what's been laid over it," he said.

Dean of Melbourne, Revd Dr Andreas Loewe, said it had been a long-held ambition to have "a permanent acknowledgement of country" at St Paul's. "When we are celebrating our services, looking through those windows is a wonderful thing because it really just focuses our minds in reminding us what's underneath our feet," he said.

“The idea was that you entered the cathedral and immediately you saw the ceremonial space, the sanctuary space, filtered through an Indigenous perspective,” he says. “You walk in and you have your perspective changed.

“Everyone will pass through that screen, from the youngest chorister to the oldest archbishop... We haven’t reached the reconciliation that we are aiming for, we are on our journey towards that. And this will be part of the journey.”

Sources: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/artist-glenn-loughrey-wiradjuri-man-appointed-canon-of-st-paul-s-cathedral-20210810-p58hg4.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-30/st-pauls-cathedral-indigenous-glass-windows/101567758

Temptation at Cook’s Gap 1970

https://www.glennloughrey.com/#/the-australia-series/

More about Glenn:

https://www.glennloughrey.com/

ABC Soul Search 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soul-search/a-voice-to-parliament-a-voice-to-the-church/102232184

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drawingroom/water-dreaming/11903828