Honourable senators, I rise today to celebrate two important Mi’kmaq women, both inspirational trailblazers, as we stretch the conclusion of Mi’kmaw History Month and Women’s History Month.

Dr. Rita Joe and Dr. Elsie Charles Basque are Mi’kmaq women who made history, and both were Survivors of the notorious Shubenacadie Residential School.

Dr. Elsie Charles Basque was born in 1916 to Margaret Labrador and Joe Charles, and she was the first Mi’kmaw person in Nova Scotia to earn a teacher’s licence and the first Mi’kmaw person to teach in a non-Indigenous school.

Elsie spent much of her life in Boston, Massachusetts, which was common for people from Nova Scotia. Locally, we called the U.S. Eastern Seaboard “the Boston States.”

While living in Boston, Dr. Basque taught many about Indigenous issues, including Mi’kmaq culture, Indigenous elderly and the status of American Indigenous Peoples. She was one of the founding members of the Boston Indian Council.

Elsie received many honours for her leadership in the field of education, including honorary doctorates from the Nova Scotia Teachers College in Truro, l’Université Sainte-Anne and Acadia University.

Dr. Basque was presented with Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and, in 2009, she became a Member of the Order of Canada.

Dr. Rita Joe was a Mi’kmaw poet born in 1932 in Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia. 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.

She was orphaned at 10 and sent to residential school. Like Dr. Basque, Rita Joe ended up living and working in Boston for a period. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1992, was called to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, received what was then called a National Aboriginal Achievement Award and honorary degrees from Dalhousie University, Cape Breton University and Mount Saint Vincent University.

Rita Joe authored six books and inspired many Indigenous writers. Before concluding, I will leave you with the famous words of Rita Joe in her 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 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.

Colleagues, please join me in celebrating these remarkable women leaders from Mi’kma’ki, Dr. Rita Joe and Dr. Elsie Charles Basque.

Wela’lioq.