Last month, there was a celebration in honour of three women who returned 47 acres on Read Island to the Homalco First Nation.
“There’s a lovely little sort of swamp on it, the bluffs and you can see the sea, but I live on Quadra and Helen lives in Vancouver and we rarely went out to it,” explained Eileen Sowerby.
Sowerby, Helen Turbett, and the late Su’zan Cook held the title for about 25 years, but never considered it as their personal property.
They were once members of a Quadra Island group that wanted to start a permaculture project with Central Americans. While this never came into being, they purchased 52 acres on Read Island. The founder of the group moved on, people dropped out along the way.
“I have been across mostly to Read Island by kayaking, but not in the last few years with COVID. Anyway, the land’s doing great. The trees are doing great,” said Sowerby.
About fifteen years ago, the group agreed to give away five acres in honour of Sowerby’s recently departed son, John McKim Millar. After a long search, they decided to give the land to the Strathcona Regional District.
“Regional Director Jim Abrams realized, ‘ yeah, this is great. It’s just by the school. These are beautiful old Cedar and Douglas fir trees,’” said Sowerby.
The Surge Narrows Community Association agreed to help maintain the land and the John Kim Nature Sanctuary was established in 2010.
“One of the covenants is that it’s for every species, but no trail is to be made by humans. I think it’s time to give the other 99.999% of species a chance,” said Sowerby.
The remaining 47 acres are across the road from the sanctuary. Aside from the Bluffs, this is land that was clearcut in the 1950s.
A few years ago, Helen Turbett suggested, “Why not give it back to the First Nations?”
“I thought about it for about 10 seconds and said, why not?”
The youngest member of the group, Su’zan Cook, agreed, but died of cancer before the transfer could take place.
Read Island is part of the traditional territory of the Homalco First Nation, and Sowerby approached Chief Darren Blaney with the offer.
Sue Hanley played an invaluable part in the negotiations that followed.
There are three very strong covenants:
- There are strong protections for the trees, which are not to be cut unless they become a threat
- The land is not to be used for commercial purposes
- The donors are permitted to use the land throughout the remainder of their lifetime.
On May 12th, 2022, the Homalco First Nation celebrated the return of the 47 acres in a special celebration at their centre in Campbell River. Turbett, Sowerby and Daniel Cook, who represented his late sister, were present.
Chief Darren Blaney said “Homalco First Nation is proud to see the return of a portion of our territory on Read Island. We’re grateful to have worked with Eileen and Helen through this process and are excited to work with our community to explore opportunities for cultural, recreational, and spiritual uses of the land.”
Sowerby read out a speech, “Roderick Haig Brown says, ‘it seems clear beyond any possibility of argument that we can only ever have a lease, not ownership of the earth. And one essential term of this lease is that we hand the land on with unimpaired potentiality.’ Those were his words.”
“Well, we colonialists have not done a very good job here. In our arrogance, we have clear cut natural forest and still clear cut them saying it’s in the name of efficiency when really it’s in the name of greed, institutionalized greed, even in spite of climate change.”
“So a small group decided to return the land back to those who have had tenure for thousands and thousands of years. And I thank Helen, and I thank Daniel for honouring Su’zan’s wishes in doing this.”
A few of the elders present talked about Louis Tipton’s old store in Surge Narrows. Somebody used to buy candy there. Chief Blaney collected oysters from the neighbouring beach. Others mentioned walking across the island to Evans Bay, which was a much shorter route than going around the top of the island.
“It’s quite fitting for the Homalco to have this land because I think their name means ‘people of the swift currents’ and there are certainly swift currents around,” said Sowerby.
Top photo credit: (l to r) Daniel Cook, Helen Turbett and Eileen Sowerby at the May 12, 2022, ceremony in the Homalco Centre – photo by James Hackett
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