Kate Wild wins $80,000 for book on Kumanjayi Walker shooting
Journalist Kate Wild won the $80,000 Prime Minister's Literary Award for her book about the 2019 shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.
Kate Wild has won the $80,000 Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction for her book The Red House, which investigates the 2019 police shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu, Northern Territory.
Walker was shot by then-constable Zachary Rolfe during an arrest attempt after he stabbed Rolfe in the shoulder with medical scissors. Rolfe was acquitted of murder in 2022 after a six-week trial.
In 2025, a coronial inquest found Rolfe was racist and could not exclude that his attitudes contributed to Walker's death. Rolfe has since been dismissed from the NT Police Force.
The judges praised the book as deeply compassionate and rigorous.
Why it mattersThe award recognises the book's examination of the shooting, which sparked protests calling for justice and sparked a national conversation.
AustraliaThe book and award bring renewed attention to the Kumanjayi Walker case, which remains a focal point in debates about Indigenous deaths in police custody and accountability in Australia.
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