Top: Zoe Daniel in action; Bottom left: Zoe Daniel’s book ‘Storyteller’ – Image source: Zoe Daniel’s facebook page
ABC South East Asia Correspondent Zoe Daniel was at Casula Powerhouse last Saturday for the Sydney Writers Festivals event.
Daniel, is one only a handful of women to combine one of the most dangerous jobs in the world with one of the most demanding – motherhood.
“Juggling work and family is difficult no matter what sort of work it is. As a foreign correspondent, the assignments are frequently high-risk in various ways and they’re mostly traumatic events. They often involve vulnerable people who are usually the worst affected by events such as natural disasters” said Daniel.
Daniel has covered stories such as the Khmer Rouge war crimes trials, the Red Shirt protests in Bangkok, the Christmas Island asylum seeker boat crash, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the secretarian violence in Burma’s Rakhine state, the Delhi rape case and Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines.
“The work can be logistically challenging and often horribly sad. Yet while there are lots of reasons not to do it, it’s important that those people are given a voice”