The Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation, also known as Grassy Narrows, is an Indigenous nation in northwestern Ontario, an hour north of Kenora, Ont.

It’s an Anishinabek community with a rich history of multicultural hunters, trappers, fishers and harvesters of the land. But in recent history, it’s been launched into the national spotlight as the First Nation poisoned by mercury.

Media coverage of the dumping, which began in the early 1960s, has exposed the world to the community’s incredible suffering caused by contamination of the land, water and fish, the consumption of which has made many of its members sick. (About 1,000 people live on the reserve.)

In April 2016, with support from N’we Jinan, youth in Grassy Narrows — including Darwin Fobister and Hailey Loon — released an original song called “Home to Me,” which draws attention to the community's struggle with deforestation and contamination, but also highlights the strength they draw from their deep connection to the environment. N’we Jinan is a nonprofit organization that brings a mobile recording studio into communities across North America to help youth express themselves through song with professional guidance.

Today, the youth have a message for the public: “We are more than mercury.”

DARWIN FOBISTER, 21: ‘I decided to work with Grassy’s youth because they saw me as a leader’

I didn’t find out until the age of 5 about the mercury poisoning. I started having seizures — my mother’s umbilical cord had a high amount of mercury in it. The doctors knew when I was born that I wasn’t a normal baby.

When I was 8, my grandma and my dad told me everything. They said my parents ate a lot of fish, and explained about the pulp mill, which dumped mercury into the river system in the 1960s.

They told me we were sick.

Every day I have headaches, and I can’t feel my hands sometimes. They get numb. My speech was way off, too — I had to take special education.

But I never let mercury bother me too much. We need to move forward.

Now, I’m the recreational activator at the community’s multi-purpose complex. I put on activities for the kids to give them a brighter future and an active life.

I decided to work with Grassy’s youth because they saw me as a leader. They looked up to me because I never turned to alcohol and drugs.

I can’t say kids here have everything, but I see everything in them. They’re involved in their culture, they’re learning how to get the community back together instead of separated. They enjoy the moccasin game; they pick wild rice and learn how to process and cook it.

I see leaders around here. I don’t see mercury. When I think about our people, I think about our hunting, fishing and trapping — the cultural practices we still live today.

The media’s focus on mercury means we’re no longer alone. We have the world’s support and it makes everybody in Grassy feel stronger.

But our community is not all about mercury. We don’t want to think of a dying tree, we want to think of a living tree — healthy with growing green leaves. That’s the truth. I enjoy my life. I enjoy my fishing and my great-grandfather’s teachings.

Part of my happy story is filmmaking. I started taking pictures and videos as a teenager because I love nature and the beautiful sites around the reserve. I take them to bring out beauty in the community, so people don’t think that they have nothing.

My friends from around the world like my videos. They start to see what’s really going on in Grassy, the positives and the negatives. My work is showing people that there are youth here who are interested in these kinds of things, and in honouring the land and the water the way our elders did — but with the new tools available to us.

HAILEY LOON, 17: ‘If I started a tourism business I would show people there’s so much more’

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My mom never ate fish when she was pregnant with me. I grew up mostly with my grandparents, and fish was a regular part of my diet.

But I don’t have any mercury symptoms. I’m lucky. It’s hard watching other people suffer from the symptoms.

There’s a lot more going on here than mercury problems though. I met a friend once from Ignace, Ont., and he was doing a school project on Grassy Narrows. He told me that all he could find online was mercury reports and news articles about it.

I had to tell him it’s not all about mercury; not everyone is affected by it. He just said, “Wow.” I told him my story and how I’m not really poisoned by the mercury.

This is my story: I play sports, walk around in the bush and hang out at home with my mom and we bead together. I play Scrabble at my kookum’s (grandmother’s) and we talk about life.

Last year, I joined a program called Outside Looking In (OLI) because I needed a high school credit. OLI brings dance education to Indigenous youth and their communities.

Rehearsals were tough, but I’m really glad I stayed because it was a new experience for me. I met a lot of people and it was amazing. I never thought I could dance until OLI came here. But I motivated myself to learn and try hard.

We went to Toronto in May and danced onstage in front of like 2,000 people. I feel really proud of myself and I know I inspired kids because they came up to me after I got back and asked me how my experience was, and how it was at camp, and how it felt.

I’ll probably do it again this year. If there’s one thing I would want people to know about Grassy Narrows, it’s that Grassy Narrows is a beautiful place with beautiful scenery. If I had to start up a tourism business, I would show people that there’s so much more.

DARCY WILLIAMSON, 27: ‘I want to become a paramedic or get into nursing, and bring that back’

I’ve been playing hockey since I was 4 years old, so I know what it’s like outside of the community and I know what’s going on inside the community.

I played in Kenora from Grade 9 to the end of high school, played for Team Ontario at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships, and then played junior A in Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and Thunder Bay.

And I did hear stuff about Grassy brought up in those cities. I heard about the mercury problem and the forestry, both good and bad. But sports brought me out of my shell — I gained more confidence and started to find out that mercury didn’t have to be a huge factor in my life.

I feel like the media only covers the bad stuff here. Why not talk about the powwows? The cultural camp that happened over the summer? The fish derbies? The way our community and school came together during the Humboldt Broncos tragedy?

I wish they could find a balance in coverage, just like life — life needs a balance between the good and the bad.

When people see me, I don’t want them to see someone poisoned by mercury. I want them to see a culturally oriented community member.

I’m also a grass dancer, and when I dance, I dance to feel good about myself. Or when someone is asking me for help or advice, when I enter the circle to dance I pray for them and for their healing. It’s a good path to go on.

I went to Lakehead University for a while and studied Indigenous learning. I did pre-health science, and ultimately, I think I want to become a paramedic or get into nursing, and bring that back to the community — something that’s really needed.

For now, I’m the phys-ed teacher at our community school. One of my goals is to bring all the hockey knowledge that I have to the students here and show them there’s a lot more out there than what they see here.