• Chloe Hooper, Christine Wallace
• ABC Fora

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07 September 2009In November 2004 on Palm Island an Aboriginal man, Cameron Doomadgee, was arrested for swearing at a police officer. Forty minutes later he was dead in custody. The release of the pathologists' report, which found that Doomadgee had four broken ribs and died from a ruptured liver and portal vein, sparked violent riots in the community. Author Chloe Hooper went to Palm Island to cover the story of his death, and continued on to cover the trial of his accused killer, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. Here she talks with Christine Wallace at the Sydney Writers Festival.

Chloe Hooper won a Walkley Award for her coverage of the inquest into the death of Cameron Doomadgee for "The Monthly" magazine. Her subsequent book on the topic, "The Tall Man" has received critical acclaim, including winning the 2009 Douglas Stewart NSW Premier's Literary Award, the John Button Prize and the 2009 Ned Kelly Award and 2009 Crime Davitt Award. Her first book, a novel "A Child's Book of True Crime" was a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the Orange Price for Fiction.

Christine Wallace is a journalist and biographer. She has spent more than 20 years covering Australian federal politics, including working in the Canberra press gallery for media organisations such as The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, Business Review Weekly and ABC TV. Currently she is a contributing writer for The Weekend Australian Magazine. She has also written biographies on Germaine Greer, "Taming the Shrew" and Sir Donald Bradman, "The Private Don".