Rita Joe
Biography
Rita Joe - Photo Courtesy of Daniel Paul
Rita Joe was born in Cape Breton on March 15, 1932. Because her mother died when she was five, Joe had to live in various foster homes. Abused sexually, physically, and verbally, Joe finally moved out on her own. She had three children before marrying Frank Joe. It was after she was married that she began to write, starting with a weekly column called Here and There in Eskasoni. As a Mi’kmaq woman living in a time when prejudices were obvious and rampant, she wrote to be “the ambassador” for her people, believing “if I do not have fear, my people will have no fear.” Joe recorded the knowledge of her elders and the truth of her people’s struggle, patiently breaking down barriers one word at a time.
Rita Joe has six books of poetry and song, and one autobiography to her name. Rita Joe became known as the Poet Laureate of her people, as many of her poems are translated from Mi’kmaq. Joe gave Aboriginals a voice when one was so desperately needed. Joe was awarded the Order of Canada in 1991 and an Honourary Doctorate of Law from Dalhousie University in 1993.
Though she passed away of Parkinson’s disease five days from her seventy-fifth birthday, Rita Joe lives on through the power of her words. Her works and life have been made into a stage play (The Ecstasy of Rita Joe), a bio pic, and even a symphony, demonstrating the far-reaching influence her words had on people of all nationalities.
Rita Joe has six books of poetry and song, and one autobiography to her name. Rita Joe became known as the Poet Laureate of her people, as many of her poems are translated from Mi’kmaq. Joe gave Aboriginals a voice when one was so desperately needed. Joe was awarded the Order of Canada in 1991 and an Honourary Doctorate of Law from Dalhousie University in 1993.
Though she passed away of Parkinson’s disease five days from her seventy-fifth birthday, Rita Joe lives on through the power of her words. Her works and life have been made into a stage play (The Ecstasy of Rita Joe), a bio pic, and even a symphony, demonstrating the far-reaching influence her words had on people of all nationalities.
Additional Information:
Author's Wikipedia
“I am an Indian on this land”
Interview
Vanguard virtual exhibit page
Author's Wikipedia
“I am an Indian on this land”
Interview
Vanguard virtual exhibit page
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.
Published in Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Ed. Lee Maracle. Ragweed Press, 1988.
Used with Permission of Rita Joe’s Literary Executor.
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.
Published in Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Ed. Lee Maracle. Ragweed Press, 1988.
Used with Permission of Rita Joe’s Literary Executor.
Critical Analysis: The Duality of Language in Rita Joe's "I Lost My Talk"
Sarah Jarvis (Advanced Poetry) and Monica Grasse (2015 Managing Editor)
The poem “I Lost My Talk” is unlike many of Rita Joe’s other nature or heritage-themed works in that it is not only autobiographical, but also deeply personal. Joe attended Shubenacadie Indian Residential School from the ages of twelve to sixteen, and while there she experienced belittlement, abuse, and prejudice from her teachers (Joe 96, 50-2). They disparaged her ethnicity – “you snatched it away” – and therefore Joe felt her identity, her Mi’kmaq voice, being repressed (5).
Despite that, readers get a glimpse of Joe’s determination to see the best in others. Instead of emphasizing difference, Joe expresses similarities between herself and white people: “I speak like you/I think like you/I create like you” (6-8). Wherever possible, Joe uses common experiences and desires to show how we are all human. Although the second stanza claims someone “snatched” Joe’s talk away, in the third stanza she writes “Two ways I talk/Both ways I say” (5, 10-11). This contradicts her earlier assertion that she lost her talk – she speaks two languages. However, her Mi’kmaq speech was repressed in favor of “more powerful” English (12).
The restraint Joe faced when writing is emblematic of a problem for many marginalized writers today. Elaine Showalter’s essay “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” aptly explains Joe’s frustration of her “talk” being repressed, and justifies her assertion of losing her talk altogether. Showalter quotes authors Edwin and Shirley Ardener, who reference the struggle of the power dynamic between the “muted” and “dominant” groups trying to work together (262). Ardener explains that “all language is the language of the dominant order, and women, if they speak at all, must speak through it” (262). In Ardener’s case, the “muted” group is women (262); in Joe’s case, the silenced group is the Mi’kmaq. Both authors recognize the awful significance of the repression occurring for the “muted” group, and both attempt to change it (Showalter, 262).
The Ardeners describe the repression of “muted” groups through a double circle diagram, in which one circle represents the dominant group, and the other, the muted. The dominant circle covers the muted so that most of the muted circle is obscured; however, on each side of the dominant circle is a slight sliver of unshared space (262). One sliver represents the small portion of the dominant group unshared by the muted (262). The other sliver, found on the edge of the muted group’s identity (be it gender, culture, etc.) represents the unknowable (to the dominant group), the “wild zone,” who are fighting for what they deserve: their voice (262). This is where Rita Joe – both as a woman and a representative of the Mi’kmaq culture – is able to find her “talk” (Joe, 12). According to the Ardeners, this is outer sliver is where writers choose to “make the invisible visible” and “make the silent speak” (263). It is also here where Joe’s signature humility broaches her duality of language as an opportunity rather than an intrusion: “So gently I offer my hand and ask,/Let me find my talk/So I can teach you about me” (13-15).
“I Lost My Talk” is a beautiful portrait of how diverse ethnic harmony could—and in some cases does—exist. Non-Mi’kmaq people forcibly brought Joe their culture when she learned English. In this poem, Joe invites them to share in the wealth of history and knowledge of her people.
Works Cited (for critical analysis)
Joe, Rita. Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Ed. Lee Maracle. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1988.
Showalter, Elaine. “Femenist Criticism in the Wilderness.” New Femenist Criticism. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 243-70.
The poem “I Lost My Talk” is unlike many of Rita Joe’s other nature or heritage-themed works in that it is not only autobiographical, but also deeply personal. Joe attended Shubenacadie Indian Residential School from the ages of twelve to sixteen, and while there she experienced belittlement, abuse, and prejudice from her teachers (Joe 96, 50-2). They disparaged her ethnicity – “you snatched it away” – and therefore Joe felt her identity, her Mi’kmaq voice, being repressed (5).
Despite that, readers get a glimpse of Joe’s determination to see the best in others. Instead of emphasizing difference, Joe expresses similarities between herself and white people: “I speak like you/I think like you/I create like you” (6-8). Wherever possible, Joe uses common experiences and desires to show how we are all human. Although the second stanza claims someone “snatched” Joe’s talk away, in the third stanza she writes “Two ways I talk/Both ways I say” (5, 10-11). This contradicts her earlier assertion that she lost her talk – she speaks two languages. However, her Mi’kmaq speech was repressed in favor of “more powerful” English (12).
The restraint Joe faced when writing is emblematic of a problem for many marginalized writers today. Elaine Showalter’s essay “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” aptly explains Joe’s frustration of her “talk” being repressed, and justifies her assertion of losing her talk altogether. Showalter quotes authors Edwin and Shirley Ardener, who reference the struggle of the power dynamic between the “muted” and “dominant” groups trying to work together (262). Ardener explains that “all language is the language of the dominant order, and women, if they speak at all, must speak through it” (262). In Ardener’s case, the “muted” group is women (262); in Joe’s case, the silenced group is the Mi’kmaq. Both authors recognize the awful significance of the repression occurring for the “muted” group, and both attempt to change it (Showalter, 262).
The Ardeners describe the repression of “muted” groups through a double circle diagram, in which one circle represents the dominant group, and the other, the muted. The dominant circle covers the muted so that most of the muted circle is obscured; however, on each side of the dominant circle is a slight sliver of unshared space (262). One sliver represents the small portion of the dominant group unshared by the muted (262). The other sliver, found on the edge of the muted group’s identity (be it gender, culture, etc.) represents the unknowable (to the dominant group), the “wild zone,” who are fighting for what they deserve: their voice (262). This is where Rita Joe – both as a woman and a representative of the Mi’kmaq culture – is able to find her “talk” (Joe, 12). According to the Ardeners, this is outer sliver is where writers choose to “make the invisible visible” and “make the silent speak” (263). It is also here where Joe’s signature humility broaches her duality of language as an opportunity rather than an intrusion: “So gently I offer my hand and ask,/Let me find my talk/So I can teach you about me” (13-15).
“I Lost My Talk” is a beautiful portrait of how diverse ethnic harmony could—and in some cases does—exist. Non-Mi’kmaq people forcibly brought Joe their culture when she learned English. In this poem, Joe invites them to share in the wealth of history and knowledge of her people.
Works Cited (for critical analysis)
Joe, Rita. Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Ed. Lee Maracle. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1988.
Showalter, Elaine. “Femenist Criticism in the Wilderness.” New Femenist Criticism. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 243-70.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Joe, Rita, et al. For the children. Wreck Cove: Breton Books, 2008.
Joe, Rita. “Apiksiktuaqn.” Prairie Schooner 67.4 (1993): 82.
---. “The Gentle War.” Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 10.2-3 (1989): 27-29.
---. “In Order of Line.” Prairie Schooner 67.4 (1993): 81.
---. Lnu and Indians we’re called. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991.
---. Poems of Rita Joe. Halifax: Abanaki Press, 1978.
---. Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1988.
---. Song of Rita Joe: autobiography of a Mi’kmaq poet. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1996.
---. We are the dreamers: early and recent poetry. Wreck Cove: Breton Books, 1999.
Secondary Sources:
Abu-Swailem, Abder-Rahim E. "Thematic Implications in the Stage Directions of George Ryga's Play The Ecstacy of Rita Joe." Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies 5.2 (April 2017): 161-164. Web. Research Gate, DOI: 10.24203/ajhss.v5i2.4709, May 2017.
Alba, Virgine. “Re-writing Cultures and Communities: Canadian Aboriginal Women and the Example of Slash.” Canadian Issues 21 (1999): 190-212.
Andrews Miller, Heather. “Rita Joe—Footprints.” AMMSA. n.p., n.d.
Armstrong, Jeannette C. and Lalage Grauer. “Rita Joe.” Native poetry in Canada: a contemporary anthology. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2001. 13-23.
Bhattacharya, Saradindu. "Staging the Human in George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 11.1 (2019): 37-45. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v11n1.05.
Charlebois, Gaetan, and Anne Nothof. "The Ecstasy of Rita Joe." Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, canadiantheatre.com, 12 June 2020.
Choyce, Lesley, and Rita Joe. The Mi’kmaq anthology. Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press, 1997.
Choyce, Lesley, et al. The Mi’kmaq anthology. Volume 2: In celebration of the life of Rita Joe. Lawrencetown: Pottersfield Press, 2011.
DeCosta, Susie. "Region as Ecology in the Works of Rita Joe." Canadian Poetry 78 (Spring/Summer 2016): 8-27.
D'Entremont, Yvette. "Respect for Rita Joe: Former Halifax poet laureate pens companion piece to famous poem." The Star, thestar.com, 28 Oct 2019.
Doran, Gregory Killen and George Ryga. “From the twilight to the ecstasy: the death and life of Rita Joe.” Diss. University of New Brunswick, 1998.
Downey, Adrian, and Mary Jane Harkins. "Envisioning Language Reflective of an Indigenous Worldview." Antistasis 9.1 (2019): 236-255.
Fiske, J. A. “Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet. By Rita Joe, with the assistance of Lynn Henry.” American Indian and Cultural Research Journal. 21.2 (1997): 321-3.
Grant, Agnes. “Rita Joe.” Finding my talk: how fourteen Native women reclaimed their lives after residential school. Calgary: Fifth House, 2004. 36-50.
Harjo, Joy, and Gloria Bird. “Rita Joe.” Reinventing the enemy's language: contemporary native women's writing of North America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. 220-1.
Hinton, Peter. “The Ecstasy of Rita Joe Study Guide.” The National Arts Centre English Theatre and Western Theatre Canada. 2008-2009.
Hollie, Christopher. "The Reshaping of Ryga's Rita Joe." The Whole Note, thewholenote.com, 2 Mar. 2018.
King, Thomas and Greg Staats. “Native Writers of Canada: A Photographic Portrait of 12 Contemporary Authors.” Books in Canada 23.5 (1994): 12.
"Lasting legacy of Mi'kmaq poet laureate, 'gentle warrior' Rita Joe." Cape Breton Post, capebretonpost.com, 8 Dec. 2016.
Lynes, Jeanette, and Gwendolyn Davies. “Claiming Culture, Claiming Voice: Rita Joe of Eskasoni.” Words out there: women poets in Atlantic Canada. Lockeport: Roseway Pub., 1999. 129-34.
Lutz, Hartmut. “Rita Joe.” Contemporary Challenges: Conversations with Canadian Native Authors. Ed. Hartmut Lutz. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1991. 241-64.
---. “‘Talking at the Kitchen Table’: A Personal Homage to Rita Joe of Reserve, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.” Down East: Critical Essays on Contemporary Maritime Literature. Eds. Wolfgang Hochbruck and James O. Taylor. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1996. 278-88.
“Rita Joe.” Magic weapons: Aboriginal writers remaking community after residential school. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2007. 101-35.
---. “‘I Was at War—but It Was a Gentle War’: The Power of the Positive in Rita Joe’s Autobiography.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 30.2 (2006): 33-52.
“Mi’kmaw I am: Poems of Rita Joe + We are the Dreamers.” Zocalo Poets. Zocalo Poets Blog. 11 April 2013.
Milosz, Magdalena. "Settler Coloniolism, Residential Schools, and Architectural History." Active History, activehistory.ca, 21 Nov. 2019.
Monture, Patricia A., and Patricia D. McGuire. “I Lost My Talk” Rita Joe. First voices: an Aboriginal women's reader. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2009. 129.
Moore, Mari Jo. “To Tell Our Side.” Rita Joe. Eating fire, tasting blood: breaking the great silence of the American Indian Holocaust. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006. 369.
Moses, Daniel David, and Terry Goldie. “Rita Joe: Micmac.” An anthology of Canadian native literature in English. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998. 113-16, 504-5.
“Ms. Rita Joe.” Indspire. Arts and Culture, 1997.
Napier, Jo. “Introducing Rita Joe.” Jo Napier. Wordpress, n.d.
Nodello, Alyssa. "'I Lost My Talk' By Rita Joe." Poetic Texts, alyssanpoems.blogspot.com, 16 Jan. 2018.
O’Neal, Morgan. “Rita Joe, ‘poet laureate’ of Mi’kmaq, dies.” The First Nations Drum. The First Nations Drum Newspaper. 28 April 2007.
Paul, Daniel N. “Rita Joe—The Closing of a Class Act.” We Are Not the Savages. Dr. Daniel N. Paul, n.d.
Rasporich, Beverly. “Native Women Writing: Tracing the Patterns.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 28.1 (1996): 37-51.
“Rita Joe—Biography.” Waterfront Views: Contemporary Writing of Atlantic Canada. n.p., n.d.
“Rita Joe.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Dominica, 2012.
“Rita Joe.” Tepi’ketuek Mi’kmaw Archives. 2013.
“Rita Joe.” www1.gnb.ca. n.p., n.d.
Rubin, Don, et al. "A Ryga-Rita Rethink," Canadian Theatre Review 178 (Spring 2019): 77-79.
Ryga, George. The ecstasy of Rita Joe. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1970.
---. The ecstasy of Rita Joe and other plays. Toronto: New Press, 1971.
Song of Eskasoni. Dir. Brian Guns. National Film Board of Canada, 1993.
Smith, Gordon E., and Kevin Alstrup. “Words and Music by Rita Joe: Dialogic Ethnomusicology.” Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 23 (1995): 35-53.
"The Passion of Rita Joe; Mi'kmaq Poet Dazzles, Moves." Chronicle - Herald. (2015).
Tileston, Susan. Review of We are the Dreamers: Recent and Early Poetry, by Rita Joe. The Pottersfield Portfolio 21.1 (2000): 4.
Wang, Phoebe. "Solidifying Occupations." Phoebe Ka-Ir Wang, alittleprint.com, 19 Aug 2019.
Wasserman, Jerry. The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. George Ryga. Modern Canadian Plays. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1986.
Williams, Kenneth. “Windspeaker Special Focus [National Aboriginal Achievement Awards].” Windspeaker 14.11 (1997).
Joe, Rita, et al. For the children. Wreck Cove: Breton Books, 2008.
Joe, Rita. “Apiksiktuaqn.” Prairie Schooner 67.4 (1993): 82.
---. “The Gentle War.” Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 10.2-3 (1989): 27-29.
---. “In Order of Line.” Prairie Schooner 67.4 (1993): 81.
---. Lnu and Indians we’re called. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991.
---. Poems of Rita Joe. Halifax: Abanaki Press, 1978.
---. Song of Eskasoni: More Poems Of Rita Joe. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1988.
---. Song of Rita Joe: autobiography of a Mi’kmaq poet. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1996.
---. We are the dreamers: early and recent poetry. Wreck Cove: Breton Books, 1999.
Secondary Sources:
Abu-Swailem, Abder-Rahim E. "Thematic Implications in the Stage Directions of George Ryga's Play The Ecstacy of Rita Joe." Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies 5.2 (April 2017): 161-164. Web. Research Gate, DOI: 10.24203/ajhss.v5i2.4709, May 2017.
Alba, Virgine. “Re-writing Cultures and Communities: Canadian Aboriginal Women and the Example of Slash.” Canadian Issues 21 (1999): 190-212.
Andrews Miller, Heather. “Rita Joe—Footprints.” AMMSA. n.p., n.d.
Armstrong, Jeannette C. and Lalage Grauer. “Rita Joe.” Native poetry in Canada: a contemporary anthology. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2001. 13-23.
Bhattacharya, Saradindu. "Staging the Human in George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 11.1 (2019): 37-45. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v11n1.05.
Charlebois, Gaetan, and Anne Nothof. "The Ecstasy of Rita Joe." Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, canadiantheatre.com, 12 June 2020.
Choyce, Lesley, and Rita Joe. The Mi’kmaq anthology. Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press, 1997.
Choyce, Lesley, et al. The Mi’kmaq anthology. Volume 2: In celebration of the life of Rita Joe. Lawrencetown: Pottersfield Press, 2011.
DeCosta, Susie. "Region as Ecology in the Works of Rita Joe." Canadian Poetry 78 (Spring/Summer 2016): 8-27.
D'Entremont, Yvette. "Respect for Rita Joe: Former Halifax poet laureate pens companion piece to famous poem." The Star, thestar.com, 28 Oct 2019.
Doran, Gregory Killen and George Ryga. “From the twilight to the ecstasy: the death and life of Rita Joe.” Diss. University of New Brunswick, 1998.
Downey, Adrian, and Mary Jane Harkins. "Envisioning Language Reflective of an Indigenous Worldview." Antistasis 9.1 (2019): 236-255.
Fiske, J. A. “Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet. By Rita Joe, with the assistance of Lynn Henry.” American Indian and Cultural Research Journal. 21.2 (1997): 321-3.
Grant, Agnes. “Rita Joe.” Finding my talk: how fourteen Native women reclaimed their lives after residential school. Calgary: Fifth House, 2004. 36-50.
Harjo, Joy, and Gloria Bird. “Rita Joe.” Reinventing the enemy's language: contemporary native women's writing of North America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. 220-1.
Hinton, Peter. “The Ecstasy of Rita Joe Study Guide.” The National Arts Centre English Theatre and Western Theatre Canada. 2008-2009.
Hollie, Christopher. "The Reshaping of Ryga's Rita Joe." The Whole Note, thewholenote.com, 2 Mar. 2018.
King, Thomas and Greg Staats. “Native Writers of Canada: A Photographic Portrait of 12 Contemporary Authors.” Books in Canada 23.5 (1994): 12.
"Lasting legacy of Mi'kmaq poet laureate, 'gentle warrior' Rita Joe." Cape Breton Post, capebretonpost.com, 8 Dec. 2016.
Lynes, Jeanette, and Gwendolyn Davies. “Claiming Culture, Claiming Voice: Rita Joe of Eskasoni.” Words out there: women poets in Atlantic Canada. Lockeport: Roseway Pub., 1999. 129-34.
Lutz, Hartmut. “Rita Joe.” Contemporary Challenges: Conversations with Canadian Native Authors. Ed. Hartmut Lutz. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1991. 241-64.
---. “‘Talking at the Kitchen Table’: A Personal Homage to Rita Joe of Reserve, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.” Down East: Critical Essays on Contemporary Maritime Literature. Eds. Wolfgang Hochbruck and James O. Taylor. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1996. 278-88.
“Rita Joe.” Magic weapons: Aboriginal writers remaking community after residential school. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2007. 101-35.
---. “‘I Was at War—but It Was a Gentle War’: The Power of the Positive in Rita Joe’s Autobiography.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 30.2 (2006): 33-52.
“Mi’kmaw I am: Poems of Rita Joe + We are the Dreamers.” Zocalo Poets. Zocalo Poets Blog. 11 April 2013.
Milosz, Magdalena. "Settler Coloniolism, Residential Schools, and Architectural History." Active History, activehistory.ca, 21 Nov. 2019.
Monture, Patricia A., and Patricia D. McGuire. “I Lost My Talk” Rita Joe. First voices: an Aboriginal women's reader. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2009. 129.
Moore, Mari Jo. “To Tell Our Side.” Rita Joe. Eating fire, tasting blood: breaking the great silence of the American Indian Holocaust. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006. 369.
Moses, Daniel David, and Terry Goldie. “Rita Joe: Micmac.” An anthology of Canadian native literature in English. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998. 113-16, 504-5.
“Ms. Rita Joe.” Indspire. Arts and Culture, 1997.
Napier, Jo. “Introducing Rita Joe.” Jo Napier. Wordpress, n.d.
Nodello, Alyssa. "'I Lost My Talk' By Rita Joe." Poetic Texts, alyssanpoems.blogspot.com, 16 Jan. 2018.
O’Neal, Morgan. “Rita Joe, ‘poet laureate’ of Mi’kmaq, dies.” The First Nations Drum. The First Nations Drum Newspaper. 28 April 2007.
Paul, Daniel N. “Rita Joe—The Closing of a Class Act.” We Are Not the Savages. Dr. Daniel N. Paul, n.d.
Rasporich, Beverly. “Native Women Writing: Tracing the Patterns.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 28.1 (1996): 37-51.
“Rita Joe—Biography.” Waterfront Views: Contemporary Writing of Atlantic Canada. n.p., n.d.
“Rita Joe.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Dominica, 2012.
“Rita Joe.” Tepi’ketuek Mi’kmaw Archives. 2013.
“Rita Joe.” www1.gnb.ca. n.p., n.d.
Rubin, Don, et al. "A Ryga-Rita Rethink," Canadian Theatre Review 178 (Spring 2019): 77-79.
Ryga, George. The ecstasy of Rita Joe. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1970.
---. The ecstasy of Rita Joe and other plays. Toronto: New Press, 1971.
Song of Eskasoni. Dir. Brian Guns. National Film Board of Canada, 1993.
Smith, Gordon E., and Kevin Alstrup. “Words and Music by Rita Joe: Dialogic Ethnomusicology.” Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 23 (1995): 35-53.
"The Passion of Rita Joe; Mi'kmaq Poet Dazzles, Moves." Chronicle - Herald. (2015).
Tileston, Susan. Review of We are the Dreamers: Recent and Early Poetry, by Rita Joe. The Pottersfield Portfolio 21.1 (2000): 4.
Wang, Phoebe. "Solidifying Occupations." Phoebe Ka-Ir Wang, alittleprint.com, 19 Aug 2019.
Wasserman, Jerry. The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. George Ryga. Modern Canadian Plays. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1986.
Williams, Kenneth. “Windspeaker Special Focus [National Aboriginal Achievement Awards].” Windspeaker 14.11 (1997).
