Molly Schmidt on small-town racism and the power of human connection in 'Salt River Road'

Salt River Road is a compelling coming-of-age novel about grief and healing set in a small town in the 1970s. In the aftermath of their mother’s death, the Tetley siblings’ lives are falling apart. Left to fend for themselves as their family farm goes to ruins, Rose sets out to escape the grief and mess of home. When she meets Noongar Elders Patsy and Herbert, she finds herself drawn into a home where she has the chance to discover the strength of community, and to heal a wound her family has carried for a generation. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Molly Schmidt about the challenge in writing about Indigenous characters from a non-indigenous perspective, the deep and lasting consultation she undertook with the Noongar people, and her own story of a grieving family rediscovering their connection to country.