Irene Moses



Irene Moses (Present-day Speaker of Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin)



Irene loves Biigtigong and Biigtigong people. Her love for her community is reflected in the countless hours of active community involvement and participation throughout the years. She freely gives of her time to her family and community. Her children and grandchildren are great sources of motivation and inspiration for Irene. Irene embraces and creates opportunities to enjoy life with her family and friends. She is an energetic person, who has many talents and willingly shares her knowledge. Irene acknowledges the critical role her grandmother played in positively influencing her life. She understands the importance of having our personal cheerleaders and supporters, as a result of her relationship with her Grandmother. Additionally, Irene appreciates and willingly shares the knowledge of our elders. She creates opportunities to continue learning from them and then passes this knowledge on.

Irene is a strong supporter of education. With determination and hard work, Irene achieved her goals of obtaining a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education later in life. Having dedicated most of her life to teaching children, Irene understands the importance of a formal education. Additionally, she supports the notion that education occurs beyond the classroom, and is a life-long experience. Her adventurous spirit and love for new experiences are testament to this.

Irene promotes personal healing and on-going personal development as a means to living a good life. She understands the traumatic history of our people, the impacts, and the opportunities to move beyond this state. She advocates the need to take personal responsibility for self and for the greater community as a whole. Irene appreciates knowledge and seeks out every opportunity for new learning and growth.

Irene has a passion and a great love for Nishnaabemwin. She views the language as a gift which was passed-on to her; she acknowledges her responsibility, and her desire, to pass it on. Irene participated in the language immersion instruction program and understands the necessity of immersion to produce new speakers of our language. Furthermore, she recognises that our language expresses our Nishnaabe worldview. She is quite aware of the losses that exist in the absence of language in lives of Nishnaabeg. As a result, Irene is committed to ensuring the successful revitalization of our Biigtigong Nishnaabe language and culture. Irene promotes the need for everyone to take responsibility for our language and our Nishnaabe ways; language revitalization is impossible without commitment and hard work from all of us.