Chloe Hooper’s book ‘The Tall Man’ published in 2008 tells the story of the 2004 Palm Island death in custody. She follows the lives of the families involved and the events that took place after the death. I will focus on a passage from the text on pages 182-185. This passage is about the inquest into Cameron Doomadgee’s death. A large proportion of the passage is spoken in the first person but also reverts to the third person at the end of the passage. Speaking in the first person is Tracy Twaddle, the now widowed wife of Cameron Doomadgee. In this part of the text Hooper has used a transcript from the inquest to show how Cameron Doomadgee’s wife’s presentation to the court resonates there is love and peace within the Palm Island community and is the depiction of who Cameron Doomadgee was but at the same time portrays the existence of goodness among the people on the island. Here the reader is presented with the first insight into Cameron Doomadgee’s life and at the same time offers an introduction and understanding into the contradictions that exist within life on Palm Island
Throughout the book Chloe Hooper speaks to Cameron Doomadgee’s family but she never asks them anything personal about Cameron himself. This passage is the first time intimate details about Cameron are revealed and it seems strategic the author leaves this to the person who knows him most intimately – his wife. Tracy Twaddle’s speech at the inquest is a main feature of the passage. The passion and vulnerabilities are clear of a life so tragically lost that did not need to be lost so tragically and needlessly. It also offers insight that this death was not accidental. Chloe Hooper’s introduction of Tracy Twaddle to the reader immediately moves the reader’s emotional senses that here is a grieving wife. The previous year Tracy had ‘gone to hospital with pneumonia after sleeping a night on Cameron’s grave.’ Throughout the book the reader only sees the abuse of women