I Lost My Talk

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.

In "I Lost My Talk", Rita Joe writes about the cultural assimilation of her native community. This cultural theft occurred when Joe was a child attending Shubenacadie Residental School, where the aboriginal children were taught to mimick the language and behavior of their colonialist educators. The success of their conditioning tactics is evident in lines six to eight: she now speaks, thinks, and creates like them. Despite the severity of the crime, however, Joe does not express overt anger or lay blame; the emotionally-charged diction one would expect to find is replaced by a subdued, accommodating tone. The poem, ironically written in the language of the assimilator, insists on communication as a means of bringing peace between the peoples. It echoes Joe's common assertion that the resolution of conflicts between cultures lies in communication.