Remembering Indigenous Elder Pauline Shirt

She was that grandmother that so many people didn’t have in their lives. So she was that that surrogate Toronto’s indigenous and non indigenous communities are mourning the loss of elder Pauline Shirt. She was very forward thinking knowing where we’re going, where we are right now and and laying that groundwork for our community. A lifelong educator activist and supporter of residential school survivors of which she was a survivor herself. You couldn’t beat her. You couldn’t beat her down obviously being being. A. A former student of residential school, she continued really strong with her faith and her beliefs and her language. Known across Canada for her Indigenous activism and child welfare initiatives. Together with her late husband, Elder Vern Harper, she founded the Wandering Spirit Survival School in her living room. We didn’t get recognized as a school in the beginning because we didn’t meet the standards of the Ministry of Education, becoming part of the Toronto District School Board in 1977. And the first school in Canada entirely Indigenous, operated to be able to go to school every day and feel that they are a part of something and that’s what they built with the school. She was also appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2022, served on numerous advisory councils, and was the guiding elder for George Brown College. We call herself Wisdom Keepers, Knowledge Keepers because we are the ones who keep the knowledge and pass on the knowledge you know, traditional teachings to our to our. To our people, she brought that spirit and that sacredness and that culture to wherever she went, known as Grandma Pauline to most, she was a knowledge keeper and a voice for generations, Vern. And then we lost Pauline. So you know, there’s there’s a mom and dad gone, Grandma and Grandpa gone from our community. And I don’t know, it’s never going to be the same. A public service will be held this Saturday, May 11th at Cardinal Funeral Homes, Bathurst Chapel at noon. In Toronto, Audra Brown City News.