This year, Shepparton photographer and St Brendan's parishioner, Dale Wright was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, recognising decades of service to the community as founder of the Talking Straight men's program, organist at St Brendan's and producer of the parish's annual Stations of the Cross.
Ask Dale about his life's work and he won't begin with awards. He’ll begin with talking about people. For more than fifty years, Dale has been photographing them.
Trained by some of the world's leading photography masters, he has learnt the technical skills of composition, lighting and timing, but great portrait photography has never been about optics.
"You've got to relate to the person, connect to the person – you've got to feel it," he explains. “You can’t learn it, you can’t fake it, it’s got to be ingrained in you; I guess it’s a gift, a gift of compassion, a gift to see beyond the smiles – see the vulnerability, the fear, the hurt, the dignity”.
It is this gift that has helped Dale to serve his community in profound ways, which he himself has found surprising. Thinking about his community involvement over many years, Dale now believes God was preparing him for something much bigger than photography.
Only recently, while walking down the street, he experienced what he describes as a light-bulb moment. "I thought, 'Lord, I get it’.” His mind drifted back to a farmhouse near Horsham, where, as a four-year-old boy, his mother had taught him to play ‘God Save the Queen’ on an old piano with one finger.
"I always wondered why I had the gift to play the piano," says St Brendan’s organist for 43 years, who had taught himself to play by ear. "The big fella above knew where He was leading me."
That gift eventually sent Dale to St Brendan's when, then parish priest, Fr Denis Crameri, walked into a restaurant where Dale was playing in a band and asked a simple question"'Dale, can you play at the 11 o'clock Mass?”
“I had no idea what I was doing."
Forty-three years later, he is still there.
Dale’s ministry has grown far beyond accompanying the liturgy. Every Good Friday, St Brendan's is transformed into a sacred performance space for the parish's annual Stations of the Cross. Candles flicker at each station, lighting and sound immerse the congregation in Christ's Passion, and hundreds gather for a solemn reflection that has become one of the parish's defining traditions.
"There is a passion to it," Dale says. "It's a passion play."
Each year the production tells the story through a different lens, sometimes through Mary, sometimes Peter, sometimes Simon of Cyrene—inviting people to enter more deeply into Christ's suffering and love. Many of those who once performed in the production now return with their own children. "They're retaining that connection to the Church."
Perhaps Dale's greatest ministry was born, not from success, but from suffering. At 43, while travelling Australia training and lecturing photographers, his life suddenly unravelled. "As I was speaking, a veil came over me." What he now recognises as anxiety plunged him into what he simply calls "the black hole".
For six months Dale kept functioning, but inside he was overwhelmed. "I hadn't dealt with trauma as a kid," he says. "I hadn't dealt with it." His unresolved pain reached back to his relationship with his veteran father. Like many men of his generation, emotions were buried rather than spoken about.
"There were no men to talk with." Looking back now, Dale doesn't resent that season of darkness. "The Lord gave me that black hole," he believes, "so I could find what I'm doing now."
Out of his own healing came Talking Straight. A small men's group which has now evolved into a 13-week program which has helped hundreds of men navigate anxiety, relationship breakdown, grief, addiction and despair.
Referrals come from doctors, psychologists and former participants. Every man is interviewed before joining. As each man enters the room, Dale prays silently, "Lord, they're here. Please guide me. I don't really know what I'm going to do. Please guide me."
Every man has his own story. "Pain. Fear. They've lost their faith or lost direction." Many carry unresolved trauma. Many are angry with their fathers. Others are grieving broken relationships or the loss of contact with their children.
"Men are running scared," he says. "They need to know it's okay to be loved. It's okay to be hugged." Week by week, the men explore forgiveness, compassion, father-son relationships and what Dale calls the "inner child". "They're allowed to cry. They're allowed to be forgiven."
Although his Catholic faith shapes every aspect of Dale’s way of mentoring, he never forces it upon anyone. Instead, he simply endeavours to live his faith and as an example. One Scripture passage has become his philosophy. "Jesus walked into the temple ... I never walk into the temple. I look at the poor man." "That poor man can also be me."
Former St Brendan's parish priest, Fr Joe Taylor, has watched Dale live that philosophy for decades. "He has a big heart to care for people," Fr Joe says. "I admire his courage and his ability to make things happen."
For Dale, faith is not something reserved for Sundays. It's present behind the camera. It's present at the organ. It's present in the quiet moments when a frightened man walks through the door of Talking Straight. "When I play the organ, that's my prayer time," he says. "I see people going to Communion, and sometimes there are tears in their eyes because of the words of the song."
"I feel close to God in my darkest times."
Today, he sees a thread running through every chapter of his life, from the little boy at the piano, to the photographer searching for the person behind the portrait, to the man who emerged from his own darkness determined to help others find hope.
God, he believes, had a plan all along.
PS: Fr Joe Taylor recalls a time many years ago when he accompanied Dale to Benalla to deliver portraits of war hero and surgeon, Sir Edward (Weary) Dunlop, which Dale was donating for an exhibition. Dale had taken a portrait of Sir Dunlop and the two of them had become good friends. When asked if Weary Dunlop, who was known for his humanity and assistance to young men in War, had been an inspiration to Dale, Fr Joe laughed, “Dale was an inspiration to Weary Dunlop!”
