Turning a painful past into poetry
https://vimeo.com/170262207
"Rita Joe was a Mi'kmaq woman from Cape Breton and used her writing to teach others about her culture and people. Years after her death, her words are still fighting. A newly commissioned show at Ottawa's National Arts Centre has taken one of Joe's poems and re-imagined it as a visual experience. Her most poignant piece of work, I Lost My Talk, published in 1978, recounts her years at a residential school in Halifax. Rita Joe would publish seven books in total. She was awarded the Order of Canada, appointed to the Queen's Privy Council and has been called the Mi'kmaq poet laureate. Her poem I Lost My Talk was also included in Canada's final Truth and Reconciliation Report, addressing the legacy of the residential school system. She is called the Gentle Warrior."
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