Dump is about my family home and how a few years ago my brother turned our property into the Quadra Island dump.
He was a garbage man and he started bringing garbage home to our mother's house and dumping it.
The government cleaned it up and charged my mom $30,000 for the service, almost ruining her life.
The worst part was the curious people trying to peek in on our misery as we picked bits of trash from the dirt and hauled away the stuff the government wouldn’t touch.
We had to put a chain fence up on our driveway, locks on the house doors and No Trespassing signs at the property lines for the first time in 20 years.
But the cool thing is that even after toxic waste and garbage sat there for months and the government removed the first couple feet of topsoil, a few years later the land totally reclaimed itself.
The alder trees sprouted up, grasses and weeds have come in and a pond that had been dry for years now has water in it. It’s like it never happened.
Mother nature kicked ass.
Art and words by Yolanda Mason
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