4.3 Writer's Workshop - Spoken Word Poem and Critical Thinking Essay
Can you...
Writer's Notebook 2: I Lost My Talk
Writer's Notebook 2 Continued... Rita Joe
Rita Joe, (March 15, 1932 – March 20, 2007) was a Mi'kmaw poet and songwriter from Nova Scotia. Over her lifetime she published seven books, including I Lost My Talk. The poem, I Lost My Talk, reflects on her experiences at the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School that tried to rid her of her language and culture.
What is a residential school?
Rita Joe, like many First Nations children, attended a residential school; she was taken away from her community and forced to adopt European culture. She was one of few that chose to attend – most young First Nations children were taken away from their families and forced to attend.
The treatment of many children in Indian Residential Schools was humiliating and taught them to feel unequal and ashamed. They were not allowed to speak their languages or practice their own cultures and beliefs. They were treated poorly.
These residential schools operated in Canada for over 100 years, and this has had a HUGE negative impact on First Nations peoples and culture. First Nations peoples are still trying to recover from this abuse and to regain their culture.
Order of Canada
Through her writing and influence, Rita Joe did not give up hope that treatment of First Nations people in Canada could improve and she wrote her poems of protest and hope. Her wish is beginning to come true. Canada is beginning to recognize and educate people about our negative legacies and historical discrimination.
In 1989, in recognition of her efforts, Rita Joe was made a Member of the Order of Canada, an award for Canadians who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions. Rita Joe's poems of protest and hope contributed to our developing understanding of historical wrongs done to First Nations people in Canada.
In your Writer's Notebook, read the poem again and annotate it by writing a sentence beside each stanza that explains what you think Rita Joe is trying to say about what happened to First Nations peoples. How does the message change in the last stanza?