Rita Joe - Elder crosses   Sky Davis   Mar 29, 2007 08:37 PST  "On the day I am blue, I go again to the wood where the tree is swaying, arms touching you like a friend, and the sound of the wind so alone like I am; whispers here, whispers there, come and just be my friend." Above is an except from a poem by Mi'kmaq poet Rita Joe. She wrote about living Mi'kmaq, from her experiences at residential school to her deep connection with the environment. The last time I talked to her was shortly after the dedication of the Jani Grove at MTSF. I was feeling a lot of mixed emotions and she told me something that I'll always remember. She said,"You know honey, it's all the same. In the woods the old ones, the big trees, their job is to give life and protect and nourish the young ones. When they're no longer standing we think they're gone, that we've lost something substantial. But they're still there. Their sap may no long be rising but they're still providing and giving back. It's like that with people too. When you think they're gone they're still here, taking care of everything. Don't you forget that." Mar 25, 2007 - Halifax Herald Rita Joe, poet, 75 - Voice of Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq dies of Parkinson’s disease ELISSA BARNARD Arts Reporter Nova Scotia lost a cultural hero Tuesday with the passing of celebrated Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe in Cape Breton at the age of 75. Known as the poet laureate of the Mi’kmaq nation, Rita Joe died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. Her daughters found a poem still in her typewriter. Rita Joe overcame a difficult childhood spent in foster homes and at the Shubenacadie Residential School to publish seven books, mentor young writers, champion Mi’kmaq culture and meet Queen Elizabeth II. The publication of her first book The Poems of Rita Joe in 1978 was "an extraordinary event," says Nova Scotia writer and publisher Lesley Choyce. "That was probably the first book of Mi’kmaq poetry by a Mi’kmaq writer published in Nova Scotia. She was able to bring the Mi’kmaq language into publication, which is very rare." Joe, who just celebrated her birthday March 15, was born in Whycocomagh in 1932. She was orphaned at age 10 and went on to live with a succession of foster families. When she was in her 30s, Joe began writing verses to counter images of natives that filled the books read by some of her eight children. "She didn’t tell any of us she was going to write," recalled her daughter Frances Sylliboy. Joe kept it a secret from her husband and children until her work was selected for an award in an annual contest held by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, of which she was a long-time member. The boost of encouragement cultivated her lifetime goal of changing the perception some non-native people held of her people. "She didn’t like them being portrayed in a negative way," said Sylliboy. "She wanted to pass along that positive, gentle, loving image of the Indian." "I want to put out positive images of aboriginal people," Joe said in an interview years ago. "But everything I do is gentle persuasion. And that had more effect than a blockade." Joe, who lived in Eskasoni, was able to transcend pain through art, says Jane Buss, executive director of the writers’ federation. "Her object was to be a fine writer and to take all the pain and transcend it through the stories, to transmute it into something that gave her people and her stories an honoured place. She succeeded in getting that all started." In 1997, Joe and Lesley Choyce, of Pottersfield Press, co-edited The Mi’kmaq Anthology, a book featuring 16 Mi’maq writers and a resource Choyce still uses when teaching the aboriginal and black students in the Transition Year Program at Dalhousie University. "She was out there encouraging Mi’kmaq writers to write and to publish and she would guide them to me as a publisher," he said. "It was a wonderful experience working with her. She had this quiet powerful voice in her poetry and when she spoke in public." Mi’kmaq poet Lindsay Marshall, related to the writer through her late husband Frank Joe, said that upon meeting Joe "you would not think she was a literary powerhouse. "She was very laid-back, introspective, very dignified and reserved, but through her poetry she spoke volumes. She didn’t let on her power." He remembers seeing Joe, also a widely travelled public speaker, at Chapel Island. "I saw her speak and recite her poems on a summer day in July and, for me, it moved me as a poet. It provided me with the courage to write. "I think her legacy will be found in classrooms and universities where people are studying her poems," says Marshall, now director of the Mi’kmaq College Institute at Cape Breton University. "Poetry is a snapshot of our past and our culture. It becomes a living legacy." An officer of the Order of Canada and one of the few non-politicians ever called to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Joe received honorary degrees from Mount Saint Vincent, Dalhousie, St. Thomas and Cape Breton Universities as well as a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. She was also featured in television and radio documentaries, and wrote for several aboriginal and non-native publications. "She fought hard and long to try to have some justice for the Mi’kmaq realized," says Mi’kmaq author and consultant Daniel Paul, a friend of Joe’s for 30 years. "I think she saw poetry as a way to express her concern about the way the Mi’kmaq were treated, the racism they suffered. She was very instrumental in inspiring people to strive for excellence in their life. "She never hated anybody." Joe’s books include Songs of Eskasoni (1988), Lnu and Indians We’re Called (1991), Kelusultiek (1995) and Songs of Rita Joe: The Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet (1996). That work continued until her final days. "When we came home, we found papers still on her typewriter," said Sylliboy. The work found by her family was October Song, a poem with many revised copies still scattered near her work area. The final copy reads: "On the day I am blue, I go again to the wood where the tree is swaying, arms touching you like a friend, and the sound of the wind so alone like I am; whispers here, whispers there, come and just be my friend." Funeral for Joe will be held Monday, 10:30 a.m., in Holy Family Church. She is survived by nine children and was predeceased by four including one in infancy. Sky Tree, gather up my thoughts like the clouds in your branches. Draw up my soul like the waters in your root. -J. Daniel Beaudry Re: Elder crosses   Andrew Joslin   Mar 29, 2007 10:06 PST  Thanks for posting that. I wish I had a chance to meet Rita Joe, I will most certainly look for her poetry. Is the short poem (shown below) at the end of the article by Rita Joe or J. Daniel Beaudry? Either way it's a fine little poem. Sky Tree, gather up my thoughts like the clouds in your branches. Draw up my soul like the waters in your root. Andrew Joslin Jamaica Plain, MA RE: Elder crosses   Sky Davis   Mar 29, 2007 11:41 PST  Andrew, It's by J. Daniel Beaudry. I'm really surprised you recognized the poet! It's part of my signature here :) Do try and read some of Rita's poetry. She was a wonderful woman and a powerful ally for the natural world. She will be missed. Sky   Home