Salt River Road by Molly Schmidt

Salt River Road opens with a chapter titled 'Ngank' which we later come to understand is the Noongar word for mother, or sun, and 'nganka' is thumb, mother of your hand. For the Tetley family the sun is gone, their mother has died at Christmas after a slow debilitating illness. The father, Eddie, and the five siblings Steve, Joe, Frank, Rose and Alby are falling apart, overcome with grief. Told alternately by 16 year old Rose and her one year older brother Frank, the prose sometimes becomes free form poetry, an emotional expression of their sorrow and anger.

With their father losing interest in everything, the family silently collapses and the farm threatens to go into ruin. Frank goes off the rails. Always the wilder funny one, he now shuts himself off and rapidly descends into drinking and delinquency. Rose struggles to hold things together but eventually the strain finds her blubbering by the side of a road. When the concerned driver of a car pulls up, she meets the kindly Noongar Elders, Patsy and Herb.

There is a secret in the Tetley family and it involves their past relationship with Patsy and Herb. Before embarking on a story that includes Aboriginal characters, Molly Schmidt consulted extensively with Goreng and Menang Noongar Elders of Western Australia. She wanted to avoid ‘misrepresentation, cultural appropriation, stereotyping and tokenism’. That meant talking and listening, and sharing stories over cups of tea. In her book, Schmidt includes episodes revealing Noongar people and culture, but it is never as the teller of their stories, rather it is about the learning and appreciation that Rose gains as she spends more time with ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’.

This is an outstanding piece of Australian literature, both as an exploration of adolescent grief and depression, and as a highly respectful journey towards reconciliation where old grievances are worked out and people come together as a renewed community. Salt River Road was the well-deserving recipient of the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. It is highly recommended, and would be suitable for a class text. Book Club notes are available.

Themes: Grief, Loss, Depression, Delinquency, Noongar culture, Reconciliation.

Helen Eddy