Rita Joe

Her poems gave voice to what residential school tried to silence

Rita Joe (1932 – 2007) is often referred to as the ‘poet laureate’ of the Mi'kmaq people. Born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Rita spent her whole life trying to help others and herself overcome the trauma of residential school. She did so through her poems.

She lost her mother when she was only 5 years old and her father when she was ten. She was in and out of a series of foster homes and, like so many other Indigenous children, she went into residential school. She spent 4 years at the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia. Shubenacadie was the only residential school in the Maritimes. She said the only thing she really learned at the school was ’you’re no good’.

When she left Residential School, at the age of sixteen and after finishing grade 8, she went to Boston where she met and married Frank Joe. They setttled in the Eskasoni First Nation Reserve in Cape Breton where they would raise ten children. It was here that she would begin writing, especially poetry.

Here is, arguably, her most famous poem, ‘I lost My Talk’. Joe wrote in both Mi’kmaq and English using very simple language. She wrote about her private life, Indigenous identity, Mi’kmaq beliefs, traditions, and racism in Canadian society.

I lost my talk by Rita Joe
(first published in 1988. Used widely in classrooms across Canada)

I lost my talk
The talk you took away.
When I was a little girl
At Shubenacadie school.

You snatched it away:
I speak like you
I think like you
I create like you
The scrambled ballad, about my word.

Two ways I talk
Both ways I say,
Your way is more powerful.

So gently I offer my hand and ask,
Let me find my talk
So I can teach you about me.

Along with various honorary doctorates, Joe also received the Order of Canada (1989) and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award (1997). She passed away in 2007.

References:

(2017). Rita Joe. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rita-joe

Image:
Nova Scotia Museum: https://museum.novascotia.ca/fr/node/1802