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From Pathfinder Player Companion Varisia, Birthplace of Legends, Page 27:
Regional Recluse: Your home community prides itself
on remaining independent from Varisia’s city-states.
Choose one of Varisia’s unaffiliated settlements from
this list below. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Survival
checks and one of the following benefits.
Arsmeril or Crying Leaf: Gain a +1 trait bonus on Perception
checks made at night.
Ilsurian: Gain proficiency with light shields.
Sanos Forest or Whistledown: Gain Gnome as a bonus
language. If you already have this language, gain a +1 trait
bonus on Stealth checks made in forested areas.
Turtleback Ferry: Gain a +1 bonus to damage on all
attacks against creatures of the giant type.
Urglin: Gain Orc as a bonus language. If you already know
this language, gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks.
Does the Ilsurian ability to gain proficiency with light shields include light shields as a weapon, as well as armor?
It does exactly what the equivalent feat (Shield Proficiency) does, but only for light (not heavy) shields. This feat does not mention the use of the shield as a weapon.
A light shield (as a weapon) is listed under Martial Weapons in Table 6-4. You would have to take Martial Weapon Proficiency (light shield) in order to use a light shield as a weapon without penalty (unless you're somehow else proficient with all martial weapons).
Compare to the base class Bard.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A bard is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the longsword, rapier, sap, short sword, shortbow, and whip. Bards are also proficient with light armor and shields (except tower shields).
I've always understood this to mean that the bard can use a light shield as a shield without penalty but since the Bard does not get all martial weapons, the Bard can't use that light shield as a weapon without penalty, unless I missed a memo/blog post somewhere.
I believe when the rule say "proficient with shield" they mean proficient with shield as a shield, unless they explicitly include the use as a weapon. I'd be completely ok with being proven wrong, but that's my reading ATM.
Shield Proficiency (shield type) is a shield proficiency.
Weapon Proficiency (shield type) is a weapon proficiency, not a shield proficiency, but I can see your semantic arguement.
Safest bet, since that's a trait and should be approximately equivalent to half a feat, is to treat it as half of the feat Shield Proficiency, not a feat and a half {Shield Proficiency (light shields) PLUS Martial Weapon Proficiency (light shield)}