ICYMI With her silent battle against the systems of oppression that have impacted the Mi’kmaq people, Rita Joe has proven to be an everlasting figure in Canadian literature. | SaltWire
A collection of Rita Joe's works and memorabilia was on display during the celebration. Brendyn CreamerMILLBROOK, N.S. — With her silent battle against the systems of oppression that have impacted the Mi’kmaq people, Rita Joe has proven to be an everlasting figure in Canadian literature.s celebration of the acclaimed poet, where writers inspired by Joe’s writing presented their own works, showing that her impact on literary culture, and the Mi’kmaq people, lives on long after her passing.
Frances Syliboy, another of Joe’s daughters, told several stories of her mother. In one recount, she read a poem of her mother’s regarding a childhood experience of writing in her native language. This was followed by an explanation of how this work came to be. “She told my dad, my dad being a councillor at the time, ‘Frank, do something.’ My dad said, ‘you’re the writer, you do something.’“She was so brave to put herself out there,” said Joe. “She was on a mission; like she said, ‘I wanted to lift up the sad eyes of my people.’ That’s what she did. She called it climbing the hills of indifference.
“Discovering her poetry and reading her autobiography moved me so much. I knew I would carry it with me forever,” said Morris. “When I was 14, I was lucky to meet her in Eskasoni, where my own family is from, but I was so star-struck that I don’t even remember it much. Just that, in her own quietness, she had so much presence.”Danica Roache followed Morris with an essay about reclaiming her language and culture, and spoke briefly about how Joe’s autobiography impacted her own writing.
He spoke of how, during his childhood, his father would recite Joe’s poetry and her messages - one that stuck with him the most was simply to dream. “My dad would say, ‘take time to dream. We need to dream to come up with the new.’ It’s this cycle of creation and destruction that you hear in Rita Joe’s work. In with this, and out with that. Things change in life.”
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