Birthday of Nimikiiquay, Cree Elder Pauline Shirt

Born on this day in 1943, Pauline Shirt was a member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Alberta. She is remembered as a knowledge keeper, singer, elder, life-long educator and Indigenous rights advocate. In 1976 she founded Kâpapâmahchakwêw / Wandering Spirit School, an alternative education center for her child and other Native youths. The school started in Pauline's home, and was the first school in Canada entirely operated by Native people. It is still open today. Named for Kâpapâmahchakwêw, the Cree war chief who in 1885 defended his peoples and his land, Pauline did not know at the time that she shared lineage with him. She was involved in Native activism her entire life, including organizing the Ontario leg of the Native People’s Caravan to Ottawa in 1974, serving as the Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Keeper at downtown Toronto’s George Brown College, and founding the first Indigenous holistic practitioner’s clinic, Red Willow. Swampy Cree Artist Kent Monkman (Fisher River Cree Nation) painted this incredible portrait of her and states that Pauline "carries the song her great-great-great grandfather kapapamahchakwew (Wandering Spirit) sang as he crossed over to the other side on that cold day in the Frost Moon in 1885. The song gives hope and shines a light forward for future generations."