Heritage Day 2023 Celebrating Rita Joe

Eskasoni First Nation/George Paul

The Mi'kmaw poet from Eskasoni & We'koqma'q First Nations in Unamaki, Rita Joe, is Nova Scotia's honoree for Heritage Day 2023.  Often referred to as the poet laureate of the Mi’kmaq people, Rita Joe wrote powerful poetry that spoke about Indigenous identity and the legacy of residential schools in Canada

I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe

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.

Sources:

heritageday.novascotia.ca/content/2023-honouree-rita-joe

thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rita-joe

highlighting African Nova Scotian Heritage with original artwork

photo by Ryan Williams

As part of the Transitions Initiative, that raises awareness of the Shubenacadie Waterway as a natural and cultural resource, we have funded innovative pilot projects.

One of those projects that we’re super excited about is working with artist Letitia Fraser to highlight African Nova Scotian heritage along the Shubenacadie Waterway.

Letitia is producing three original paintings that will showcase African Nova Scotian individuals, recreation, and community events related to the Shubenacadie waterway area.

Stay tuned to see the paintings!

www.letitiafraser.com

African Heritage Month 2023 - Seas of Struggle

This year’s African Heritage Month provincial theme, Seas of struggle – African Peoples from Shore to Shore, outlines the struggles of people of African Descent faced from the shores of Africa to the shores of Nova Scotia. Recognizing that the one thing that has remained constant in our history is the Atlantic Ocean. The long-standing history of people of African Descent in the development of Canada, the sea has played a vital role.

As a shipping hub in the early 1800s, the majority of Nova Scotia’s revenue came from taxes on trade goods. At this time, salt fish, beef, pork, timber and flour, were traded to West Indian slave plantations in exchange for slave-made rum, sugar, molasses, cocoa, coffee, etc. Not only would these traded goods be used by canal workers, when sold within the colony, the taxes the province collected from these imports were instrumental in funding the many industries in Dartmouth, including the canal .

Source: Report of Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race.