How Canadian pop star Tyler Shaw wound up performing in Attawapiskat

Attawapiskat high school studentMarlen PaulMartinsays lots of people in her neighbourhood walk around with headphones in their ears.

That's because music, she says, is a "big thing" in the remote Indigenous community that's often in the spotlight for the darker sides of life.

"I know a lot of kids up here listen to music to help their problems," says the 21-year-old. "It helped mine, when I was younger."

Music became the common thread bringing some unlikely people together this week: Residents of Attawapiskat, some Toronto volunteers, and rising Canadian pop star Tyler Shaw.

The 2014 Juno Awardnominee forbreakout artist of the yearmade his way to Attawapiskat thanks to a collaboration between his management team, Toronto-based MDC Media Group,and the Project 5organizers from BishopMarrocco/ThomasMertonCatholic Secondary School in Toronto.

"What a special time," the singer posted onInstagramafter histhreeperformances in the Northern Ontario community on Thursday.

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Last summer, students and teachers from BishopMarrocco/ThomasMerton headed up toAttawapiskatto run a soccer tournament. Daniel Romano, who coached the soccer team that travelled up last June, went back for Thursday's concerts, andsays his colleague, social worker PauloPereira, helped make the connection with Shaw's management.

Returning to Attawapiskat for Shaw's three shows one at each of thetwoschools, and another for the whole community wasa great experience, Romano says.

"In the past year, let's say,Attawapiskatwas in the media in a really negative way. There was a suicide crisis there. They were portrayed as a community with flooding," he says.

But he says music, performed by someone young people can watch on TV and YouTube, was meant to be inspiring.

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Romano says Shaw's management team also donated musicalinstruments, like guitars and flutes, to put a lasting music program in place. "They didn't just want to go there, play a little music, and be done with it," he says.

Attawapiskat resident RosieKoostathinattended the community concert on Thursday night, and says the donation is good news for youth in the community.

"It gives them a hope... because first ofall, because they're donated, it makes them feel people out there care for them," she says.

Access to music also inspires young people to be themselves, she says, and maybe even follow of the footsteps of Shaw, a 23-year-old pop singerfromCoquitlam, British Columbia whose track'House Of Cards' officially wentgold back in August 2015.

"You never know where they can get,"Koostathinsays.

PaulMartin says seeing Shaw perform left her feeling a little starstruck at first. And she says it was a unique experience, because seeing concerts is a pricey, difficult thing to do for people living in her community.

But while she appreciates the performances and donations, PaulMartin stresses that Attawapiskat isn't the sad, tragic place people think it is.

"It's beautiful up here," she says. "You just have to look and see."