Post Colonial Revision

I Lost My Talk (1988)

·      Rita Joe – grew up in a Canadian rural community.

·      Went to Residential School where she was verbally and physically abused.

·      Uses her poetry to draw attention towards the plight of colonized.

·      Poem talks about how she was torn between two cultures – one, her own native culture and second, the forced-upon European culture.

·      She talks about how she learned to live with the Natives until one day (think of the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence) she was send to Shubenacadie School to learnt the “other way of life”.

·      The poem talks about how “her talk” which is a representation of her culture, customs, beliefs and existence was taken away.

·      Some indications :

o   “The talk you took away”

o   “You snatched it away”

·      She goes on to say that now she speaks, thinks and creates like them.

·      It is like she has become an instrument of their culture.

·      Rita Joe felt (like most natives and colonized people) that she has lost her own identity while trying to be like her colonizers.

·      The loss of identity is seen in the title itself - “I Lost My Talk”.

·      “The scrambled ballad about my word” – very interesting line.

o   Ballad – Her song – her identity – what makes her different

o   My word – her language, customs, traditions, culture.

o   Scrambled – lying there, not completely gone.

o   Her identity, her song, her language, her culture has all been pushed aside (scrambled) by the schooling.

·      She has learnt two ways of living now – the native way and the one taught by colonizers to her.

·      “Two ways I talk, Both way I say, Your way is more powerful.” - she knows that the colonizer’s way is the right way because that is what she has been taught to believe.

·       Two ways – one at home, one at school – but one at school is more powerful and widespread.

·      Last stanza is a cry for help – “Let me find my talk”.

·      It is also a call for courage to find a way to do this – she wants to tell her part of the story – find her talk – language, customs, culture that defines her – to “teach you about me” (referring to colonizers).

·      As we see, Rita Joe has found her talk – through her poetry – to show the life of Natives – their rituals, their grief, their culture and everything they have been robbed off – it is an attempt to save and revive this culture.

THE POEM

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 world.

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.