Gunai-Kurnai and Gunditjamara writer Veronica Gorrie has won Australia's richest literary prize with a memoir of her years in the police force.
Ms Gorrie has been awarded the overall $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for her first book, as well as the prize for Indigenous writing.
Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience explores how Gorrie's family suffered at the hands of racist law enforcement, followed by stories from her decade serving as one of the few Aboriginal police officers in Australia.
Gorrie shed tears as she accepted the award in Melbourne on Thursday night, and told the crowd she couldn't believe she'd won.
"I'm so grateful that my book has done so well and has raised some talking topics in relation to my people, especially deaths in custody and the way police are killing us," she told the crowd.
During her speech she asked Victoria's justice minister to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
"It breaks my heart to know that kids as young as 10 are caged up right now and without their family," she said.
Wheeler Centre chief executive Caro Llewellyn said the awards "can quite literally change the course of the winners' lives, recognising, and sometimes launching, the careers of some of Australia's most respected and acclaimed writers".
Ronnie and Nayuka Gorrie embrace after the winning announcement Source: Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
