With poignant synchronicity, on the International Day of Peace - September 21, 2023 - Canberra lost a unique creative and prophetic voice for peace, justice and environmental security. After a short but intense encounter with cancer, Dr Glenda Cloughley passed away at her Canberra home with her husband Tony, and their sons Daniel and Raphael beside her. Her Australian family also includes stepson Louis, his wife Brianna and daughter Sienna.
Glenda Cloughley became a household name in March 2003 when she invited Canberra women to secretly join her in the Marble Foyer of Parliament House to sing a lament for the people of Iraq, which she had written only days earlier with composer friend Judith Clingan AM. They started singing just as then-PM John Howard announced in the chamber Australia would join the US-led war with Iraq. The singing of the 150 women who gathered became an international media event and led to the formation of the well-known Canberra group A Chorus of Women.
