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Lillian Shirt
Lillian Shirt (Born Lillian Piché; March 2, 1940 - July 18, 2017) was a Cree women's rights activist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 Territory, Alberta, Canada who was known for her political initiative against the discrimination towards Indigenous women and their inadequate access to housing, employment, and human rights.

Activism
In 1969, Shirt protested on the grounds of Sir Winston Churchill Square outside Edmonton's City Hall after she and her children were unjustly evicted from their apartment following a change in ownership. With nowhere else to go, and no landlord willing to rent to her, she set up a tipi for her and her 4 children to live in view of the mayor's office. During the protest, which lasted 12 days, she was joined by several others who set up tents and an additional tipi.

Her protest caught the attention of several news publications and her story was heard nationwide, on May 31st, the Toronto Globe and Mail published an article under the headline "Mother Confronts Edmonton Authority: Erects Teepee Outside City Hall", the same day, the Toronto Daily Star published a similar article with the heading "Crees Camp in Edmonton Square". Not long after, on June 2nd, The Montreal Gazette published an article titled "Cree woman believes injustice in housing - pitches a teepee". In an interview, Shirt explained that, along with housing discrimination, there were other reasons for her protest including child welfare, increased opportunities for education, and a need to address alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities. Shirt met with mayor of Edmonton, Ivor Dent, and Premier Harry Strom to outline the social injustices the Indigenous women in her community were facing and was promised that programs would be put in place to address these issues and the province's plan for welfare housing began.

In 1973, among several demonstrations, Shirt was also active in the protests again the ruling in the Lavell case where a group of Indigenous women staged a demonstration in front of the legislative buildings in Edmonton to protest the Lavell decision and demand equality, not only for Indigenous women, but for Indigenous peoples as well.

Shirt went on to become one of the pioneer Indigenous activists of her time, establishing the Alberta Native Peoples Defence Fund, now commonly known as the Alberta Litigation Fund, and contributed to the organization of the Sacred Circle program at Prince Charleselementary school, launching an initiative to teach Cree language in schools. Shirt also helped found the organization Indian Rights for Indian Women along with Mohawk right's activist Mary Two-Axe Earley, and fought to address the sex discrimination in the Indian Act, ultimately ending with the passing of Bill C-31 in 1985.

Death
Lillian died at age 77 on July 18th, 2017, survived by her 6 children, 31 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren, and her numerous traditionally adopted children and grandchildren.