The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island - Chloe Hooper

[Jane B]

The Tall Man was published in 2008 and won a slew of awards in 2009 including the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, The Queensland Premier's Literary Award, The Ned Kelly Award, The John Button Prize, The Indie Non-Fiction Award and the Australian Book Industry Award for Non-Fiction.

I found it a heartbreaking book and a sad indictment on the way that the Indigenous people of Australia and have been treated since so called civilised society in the form of Christian missionaries first started wreaking havoc on them both socially and morally. The case of Hurley, the policeman who was tried and acquited in 2007 of the manslaughter of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island off the coast of far North Queensland, and reported in this book by Chloe Hooper is unfortunately but just one example of the injustice these people have had to put up with through no fault of their own other than they happen to have been born into the Aboriginal community. This is a book of full of despair and left me feeling angry and powerless.