A journalist on the ABC’s youth-driven current affairs show Hungry Beast has earned Australia’s highest media honour for her sensitive look at the life of a woman who suffered a stroke and became ‘trapped in her own body’.

Out lesbian writer and broadcaster Monique Schafter produced several stories for the show, but it was her interview with Maree Bourke-Calliss, that took more than a week as the answers were conveyed via eyeblinks, which picked up the Walkley Award last night for best TV current affairs reporting.

“This story challenges and changes the way we think about disability,” said the judges. “Schafter uses patience and creativity to bring us the personal story of a stroke victim in her own words, even though she can’t speak.

“It’s a story that stays with you long after viewing. It is fascinating, moving, different and an original way to tell a story not often told. For originality of concept, this story was exceptional.”

Watch the Walkley-winning story below…

Maree Bourke-Calliss’s story is just one of several thought-provoking features Schafter has produced for Hungry Beast – find a list of them all here. We hope the show returns in 2012, but that hasn’t yet been confirmed by the ABC.

In another of Schafter’s stories, three female-to-male trans guys talk about their gender journey. Take a look…