Shirley Williams (Bird Clan) is an Elder from Wiikwemkoong First Nation; her Anishinaabe name is Migizi ow Kwe meaning Eagle Woman. Shirley is a Professor Emeritus at Trent University, Indigenous Studies where she has taught Anishnaabe language, identity, and culture for many years. Over the course of her career at Trent and still today, Shirley has developed many different resources to help with the teaching and learning of Anishnaabemowin. She is the author of ‘Shoolee: The Early Years’ an autobiographical and bilingual (English and Anishnnaabemowin) account of what traditional life was like growing up in the language and living close to the land on Manitoulan Island.
According to Elder Shirley Williams, supporting Indigenous language education is at the heart of reconciliation in Canada today. The residential school system almost destroyed the Anishnaabe language and the Anishnaabe educational system. If we are going to move past the many harms of the residential school system and towards reconciliation in Canada, Indigenous languages need to be supported and we need to write and speak in the language as much as we can. We need to respect and accept each other’s dialect and encourage each other to learn and speak the language. We need to love our Anishnaabe language no matter how it is said. We all belong because the Creator gave us all this language together.
