Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - 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.