Published in Overland Issue Print Issue 199 Winter 2010 · Writing / Main Posts Salt Adam Ford He steps out onto the dry, white lakebed. Hears the crunch of crystals underfoot. Tries not to imagine whiteness creeping over rubber and dusting leather on its journey to his ankle. He keeps his feet moving all the same. He understands the science: the shallow root systems of introduced plants, the water that rises from deep underground, bringing with it things that are best kept buried. He invokes the mantra of electron transfer, of ionic bonds that form when water evaporates. Magnesium sulphate. Calcium sulphate. Sodium chloride. He knows the physics and the chemistry of it all, but when he bends down on one knee and takes a pinch between his thumb and fingers, feels the grains’ sharp edges intent on piercing skin, he knows it isn’t salt he’s standing on. It’s the powdered glass they put into the flour. Adam Ford Adam Ford is the author of Man Bites Dog, The Third Fruit is a Bird, Not Quite the Man for the Job and Heroes and Civilians. He has written for Australian Author, Desktop, Going Down Swinging and Cordite. He blogs at theotheradamford. More by Adam Ford › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.