Growing up, Glenn Loughrey didn't understand why he and his relatives were sometimes treated differently.
"My father was called Blackfella and I was called Youngfella — I thought that was because he was sunburnt because he worked on a farm," he said.
"But gradually that became more obvious that there was a difference and I was treated differently by others."
Being part of a family that didn't identify as Aboriginal, the Wiradjuri man and reverend said it was a long and difficult process to come to terms with who he was.
"Aboriginality is a little bit like a slow release fertiliser, it just slowly comes into your life over a period of time," he said.
In 2012, when working as a school chaplain, Loughrey went with a group of students to walk a trail that thousands of Allied prisoners of war were forced to march in World War II on the South-East Asian island of Borneo.
After writing some poetry for the trip, he was asked to draw some sketches to go with them, and showed them to the school's art teacher, Belinda Hope.
"She said, 'You should do art'," he said.
Loughrey said his teacher told him to "get a big piece of white canvas, fill it with paint, see what happens."
"That was my only art lesson," he said.
A 'conversation' between history and contemporary
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.
Now, that role has allowed him to bring together two of his life's passions.
Loughrey has 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.
The panels also include an image of the wedge-tailed eagle Bundjil, the creator spirit for the Kulin people.
"It's able to speak and talk and interact and exchange — it's alive," he said.
Dean of Melbourne, 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.
He added that Loughrey's appointment as canon was good not just for him, but the church as a whole.
"Having appointed Loughrey and then this year we have appointed a second Aboriginal canon to the cathedral, the reverend canon Helen Dwyer, also models for other people that there isn't actually any kind of impediment to becoming an extraordinary leader in the Anglican church," he said.
Loughrey couldn't agree more.
"This gives us a voice inside the church," he said.
"[It] gives us the opportunity to help this church work towards the concept of treaty and truth-telling that it needs to do.
"If we're not seen and we're not heard, we don't exist."
'Somebody is looking out for you'
Once the designs were finished, officials still had to wait while COVID and other hurdles delayed the panels' production.
Eventually, more than a year later, the kiln at Geelong's Wathaurong Glass — a community-owned and run business — was able to be fired up, and the screens manufactured by hand.
After being made, they were then sent away to be toughened for several weeks, before finally being carefully installed in St Paul's.
Though a misstep by a wayward tourist on the final panel to be put in almost saw all that hard work come undone.
"We had securely bollarded off this area and we had a couple of tourists walk across this panel right behind me," Loewe said.
"The glazier said 'That should have broken, somebody is clearly looking out for you'."
Now all safely installed, cathedral authorities are hopeful the artwork will not only get people thinking about the traditional lands on which the building is situated, but also about the role of Indigenous Australians in the church and society.
In particular, Loughrey believes the current discussion around an Indigenous Voice to Parliament could see these issues at the forefront of Australians' minds.
"It's never been on the Australian radar before really in the way it is now," he said.
"These windows are here at the right time and I think we can really make some powerful impact moving forward."
