Carmen Wiigwaas Craig is crane clan from Hiawatha First Nation, Pema-dash-kooda-yong, on Rice Lake in what is known today as Ontario. She is Michi Saagii Nishnaabe, Irish, Welsh, and German. Her nana was Casey Cowie-ba from Hiawatha and her papa was David Craig-ba from Sixmilecross in Northern Ireland. Carmen is grateful to live on Lək̓ʷəŋən lands today. Carmen is a big sister, an aunty, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a partner, a cousin, and a friend.
Carmen's passions in life are for language and culture revitalization and resurgence, access to language and culture for all Indigenous people, accessible learning, and coming together as communities to uplift one another. She holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Linguistics with a focus on Indigenous language revitalization and an M.Ed. in Indigenous Language Revitalization, both from the University of Victoria where she now teaches in Indigenous Education.
Carmen is presenting the morning plenary.