In 2023 I attended the delegation to Turtle Island with the Community Peacemaker Team (CPT) to learn about the ongoing impacts of settler colonial violence on Turtle Island (North America). It was an impactful trip, visiting the site of a shuttered Indian Residential School, spending time in Winnipeg and seeing the impact of policy choices by the provincial and federal governments and the continued impacts of the Indian Act on Indigenous Urban populations. These impacts include the prevalence of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls and Two Spirit People. We visited the sacred fire that was holding a vigil demanding that the Winnipeg police search the landfill to find four missing Indigenous women believed to be discarded there by a serial killer who targeted Indigenous women. These women were eventually found. It was the pressure from their families and comrades that forced the state to take the necessary steps to find the missing women.
All of this violence was juxtaposed onto our visit to Grassy Narrows First Nation. We visited during their annual Pow Wow and what we witnessed was a revival of culture. We saw families gathering and spending time together, enjoying their time of celebration. We saw children, elders and everyone in between participating in dance and being together. We ate food and laughed. It was a beautiful sight. It was an incredible honour to be invited into this space – a space that my ancestors had previously criminalized and banned.
Judy Da Silva, an elder and leader in Grassy Narrows, shared the history of violence and destruction with us. She shared how her Nation has been resilient and fought governments every step of the way. She shared how three youth had started the longest blockade in Canadian history by stopping logging trucks, essentially stopping logging on their lands.
She shared the brutal history of mercury poisoning: how in the 1960s ten tons of mercury was dumped into the Wabigoon river systems by the Dryden Pulp and Paper Mill, and that the governments – at all levels – did not believe Grassy Narrows members until it was corroborated by Japanese researchers and doctors, who had experienced similar mercury poisoning years earlier.
A new study has come out that details how the Dryden Pulp and Paper Mill continues to pollute the Wabigoon river system. They are no longer releasing mercury, but the mercury remains in the water system. The more recent pollution from the mill, in particular sulphates, is actually amplifying the mercury, turning it into its most harmful version, reminding us that both the poisoning and settler colonialism is an ongoing event, not a historical incident.
All of these events and talks had a profound impact on me. I study settler colonialism in grad school and so I know the historical violence that we, as settlers, enacted to live on this land. But what really had the biggest impact was this: a plaque was erected listing all the children who were sent to Indian Residential Schools from Grassy Narrows First Nation. The names of the children were listed alphabetically by family name. We saw the devastation this had on families. As a delegation we talked about it.
“But those names,” one of my new friends said, “those family names are the last names of the people on the front line of the fight today!” That’s when I realized that settler colonialism had not won, and will never win, because Grassy Narrows members will never stop fighting and will never fail to stand up for their community, their land, and their way of life.
A couple of weekends ago, I was asked to join another delegation, this time going up to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to support Grassy Narrows community members in organizing a rally. I wholeheartedly agreed, because I know that, as a white settler, the biggest impact I can have in disrupting settler colonialism – and the environmental catastrophe through which we are currently living – is to support the Land Defenders of Grassy Narrows First Nation.
In this rally and march we were protesting a deep geological nuclear waste repository, which has been planned for Ignace, located at Revell Lake, feeding into the Wabigoon River system surrounding Grassy Narrows. Grassy Narrows First Nation is fighting that too, to prevent another environmental catastrophe from killing them and their lands.
The continued violence of settler colonialism imposed on Grassy Narrows and all Indigenous Nations is real and enacted by all levels of governance in so-called Canada. It is enacted in our name and carried out with exacting consequences, as intended. As settlers, we can unite in solidarity and support Grassy Narrows First Nation. Because the violence is real, it continues, and one of the ways we – as settlers – can support these nations is by telling our settler-driven governments that they do not act with our permission. We can demonstrate that we are against the continued pollution.
On 30 March we held a rally in Toronto. We disrupted Mark Carney and Doug Ford’s press conference. Chrissy Isaacs, a proud member of Grassy Narrows First Nation who is poisoned by mercury, interrupted their speeches. At the time, Carney claimed that he could “outlast her.” Let’s be clear: that will never happen. Grassy Narrows First Nation has been here since time immemorial. They will resist and protect their land, culture, and community. They will outlast Carney and they will receive the compensation that they deserve.
I am a member of Grassy Narrows Solidarity Group in Toronto and one of the main organizers of the Grassy Narrows’ River Run. In 2024, I watched Grassy Narrows members, Indigenous allies, and settlers unite to walk through downtown Toronto. We were 8,000 people strong and we shut down the streets to demonstrate that we do not support what is being done to Grassy Narrows First Nation. Here is what the Nation continues to demand:
- Compensate everyone in Grassy Narrows fairly for the mercury crisis. Sign the petition!
- End the pollution by stopping the Dryden Mill and ending mining and nuclear waste plans that threaten Grassy Narrows.
- Support Grassy Narrows in restoring their community and way of life from the damage that mercury has done. Read more here!
Learn more and join the community of solidarity!
- Join a Delegation! If you want to learn more about Grassy Narrows First Nation and the impacts of settler colonialism you can join the delegation to Turtle Island, hosted by CPT next summer as applications for this year are closed. You can find out more about the delegation here.
- Attend a Webinar! Showing Up for Racial Justice Toronto, one of the groups I organize with, is hosting a webinar: Grassy Narrows + Indigenous Rights: 150 Years of Resistance. We would love it if you would join us! You can register here,
- Come to River Run 2026! On 23 September 2026, in Toronto, Ontario, thousands of people will join members from Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nation demanding mercury justice. RSVP Here!
- Sign up for Grassy Narrows newsletter and keep up to date on what is happening in Grassy!
