Languages are fundamental to human communication. The languages that we speak shape our thoughts, our culture, and our identity. In “I Lost My Talk”, Rita Joe, a Mi’kmaq poet, writes about the pain of losing her native language at residential school. She then invites the readers, and those who stole her “talk”, to learn her language—and by effect, her aboriginal culture.

Widely regarded as the Poet Laureate of the Mi-kmaq people, Rita Joe writes poetry and prose on Indigenous identity. She is known for her memoir, Songs of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet, in which she details her experiences at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.