Rita Joe, the newest Halifax Transit ferry, crosses the harbour in Halifax on Oct. 25, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Rita Joe: new ferry honours Mi’kmaw poet laureate

Rita Joe, the Mi’kmaw poet, was honoured last Friday, in a ceremony on the Halifax waterfront, to officially unveil a new harbour ferry that has been named in her honour.

Rita Joe died in  March 2007 at the age of 75, but she had been widely recognized and honoured during her life.

“People are going to ask, ‘Who is Rita Joe?’ And people are going to find out.”

In 1987 she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and then became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1989.

Rita Joe, Mi’kmaw poet, songwriter, artist and craftswoman, is invested into the Order of Canada by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn, in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in 1998. (The Canadian Press)

In 1991 she was awarded the Order of Canada in 1991, Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, in 1992,;and in 1993, awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Law from Dalhousie University. 

From the Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton, Rita Joe had spent her early childhood on a reserve at Whycocomagh on Cape Breton island.

Her mother died when she was five, and she grew up in foster homes and attended the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.

While she suffered physical, sexual and verbal abuse in her childhood, she overcame these challenges and went on the record the knowledge of her elders and the reality of Mi’kmaw people’s struggle,

Rita Joe’s name for the ferry was chosen in a public vote.

“There’s already a boat named after her on the reservation, and now there’s a ferry named after her in Halifax. She would have been so happy,” her daughter, Frances Sylliboy, said in interview with the Canadian Press Thursday, on her way to the provincial capital for the ceremony.

“People are going to ask, ‘Who is Rita Joe?’ And people are going to find out.”

(With files from CBC and The Canadian Press)

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