Earthroots has a history of supporting Grassy Narrows and continues to push for healing and recovery for the Nation. In 2017, Earthroots was critical in the discovery of mercury tainted soils on Grassy Narrows Territory.

Read the full Toronto Star article here.

Since then, Earthroots continues to fight for mercury justice with the Grassy Narrows First Nation by being an administrator to volunteers and advisors that support the Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum. The Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum group is leading a grassroots revival in our community where women and youth are raising our voices and reclaiming our futures by protecting our forests, healing our waters, and reviving our culture. We continue to build on our successful tradition of holding annual Grassy Narrows Anishinaabekwe (Indigenous women) gatherings. One of the ways we are reviving our culture is by growing a food sovereignty garden and sharing gardening knowledge with women in our community.
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For countless generations, Grassy Narrows was a strong and self-sufficient people with a healthy environment and rich culture. But government and corporations have damaged much of what we hold sacred. Our children were forcibly taken to residential schools, our community was coercively relocated, much of our forest was clear-cut, and 10 tonnes of mercury poison was dumped into our river, which contaminated our food source.

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This is why the empowerment of women and youth is at the centre of our work to heal our water, and, and people and to undo the cumulative effects of colonialism and environmental racism. Together with our allies the Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum Group has prevented all logging on our 7,000 sq km homeland since2002, built a movement for mercury justice, and become a leading voice for environmental justice and Indigenous rights. We have accomplished this work through gatherings, ceremonies, workshops, and land-based education. The revival of our culture and ceremonies and restoring women’s leadership roles in our community goes hand in hand with the protection of the land and water.

Supporters are invited to visit http://freegrassy.org and sign up for the mailing list to receive updates about our many campaigns and how to help.