Duration: 8:02
Anwar Knight: The start of this day is a spiritual one. Before MPP Sol Mamakwa heads down to the provincial Legislature, he performs a personal smudging ceremony.
Sol Mamakwa: Me being here is just a small piece of what I can do to bridge people together.
Anwar Knight: Mamakwa's riding is called Kiiwetinoong. It means "North" in Ojibwe. Situated in northwestern Ontario, this riding is the largest in the province, stretching over 294,000 square kilometres and serving a population of just over 32,000.
He represents 31 First Nations, out of which 25 are accessible only by plane, including his own at Kingfisher Lake. He says that bird's eye view puts everything into perspective.
Sol Mamakwa: I always think about how rich we are: rich in land, rich in the waters, the lakes, the streams, the rivers and the animals that live in it, the fish that live in and all the other plants and the trees. We're so rich. But also, I also realize when I go into a community, a First Nation, a reserve, you see the poverty, the cost of living, the struggles.
Speaker Ted Arnott: Agreed. I recognize the member from Kiiwetinoong.
Anwar Knight: May 2025 marked the one-year anniversary that Mamakwa made provincial history, addressing the House in an Indigenous language: Anishininiimowin.
Sol Mamakwa (speaking in Anishininiimowin, translator voice): I am very grateful. Thankful for the opportunity to be able to speak my Anishininiimowin Indigenous Oji-Cree language in this Legislature.
Sol Mamakwa: I waited for the Speaker to stop me. I thought I was doing wrong. I thought I was breaking the rules of the House. It took me about maybe two or three minutes not to think like that anymore. And then I think I felt so much... it felt so good to speak freely. It's almost, like, you know, you're being uncuffed.
Anwar Knight: It has been a long road to this moment for Mamakwa, one marked by deep pain and resilience. As a teenager in a residential school, he was silenced. His language wasn't just forbidden; if spoken, you were punished.
Sol Mamakwa: Language is a way of life. Language is power. Language is who we are.
Anwar Knight: Engraved in marble in the main hallway of the Legislative Building of Ontario is a historical record of every member of provincial Parliament dating back to 1867.
So I wanted to take you over here to the granite or the marble wall.
Sol Mamakwa: I call it the forever rock.
Anwar Knight: Mamakwa's name is also there. But his is unlike any other.
Sol Mamakwa: You know, my first language is this. This is my second language. It's all part of it. It's about, you know, being proud of who I am, of who we are, and being proud of the language that you speak. Because it was a day, you know, a certain time in life that, you know, you weren't, you didn't know who you were. Today we are proud.
Anwar Knight: And this will help that.
Sol Mamakwa: Yeah. This will help that - proud and being strong.
Anwar Knight: Moments before MPP Mamakwa addressed the house, he displayed an eagle feather. It was gifted to him, previously by an elder from the Garden River First Nation as a prominent symbol and reminder of the path forward.
Sol Mamakwa: One of the things that he said to me is, you know, this is for you to speak the language, to keep on speaking the language. You are representing all our people.
Anwar Knight: The making of this groundbreaking moment unfolded in, of all places here, in the basement at Queen's Park, at this dining room. It's where MPP Mamakwa was attending an evening reception. He initially made some remarks in Oji-Cree, knowing that the attendees would not understand him, later translating it into English.
Sol Mamakwa: And one of the things I had said in that... when I was speaking was that, you know, it's too bad that I cannot speak my language upstairs in the Chamber.
Anwar Knight: Minister Calandra who at the time was the Government House Leader, among other roles, was also at the reception.
Hon. Paul Calandra: At the time, it uh... I found that, you know, quite irritating because I thought he was wrong.
Anwar Knight: The next morning while getting coffee at the onsite cafe, Minister Calandrasaw MPP Mamakwa again.
Hon. Paul Calandra: I confronted him and I said, "Sol, like, you're completely wrong. Of course you can speak your language."
Sol Mamakwa: I said, "No, I can't. I've tried, I tried. They've stopped me at about 20 seconds."
Hon. Paul Calandra: And I went in to go get a coffee, and one of my assistants was with me and he said, "Actually, he's right."
In the span of between getting a coffee, we walked right back out and I said, "You know what? You're right. I'm wrong, and we're going to fix it."
Anwar Knight: Both MPPs then worked together to ignite a formal process to amend the Legislative Assembly's standing orders, allowing not only English and French, but now also to permit the use of Indigenous languages in proceedings.
Hon. Paul Calandra: We didn't want it just to be a one-off. We wanted it to be something that really transitioned into letting Mr. Mamakwa, or anybody else who is elected, for that matter, from a First Nation community, come and speak their language.
Anwar Knight: The process also required facilitating in Oji-Cree simultaneous interpretation.
Interpretor: Speaking Anishininiimowin Indigenous language, that's where my life comes from.
Anwar Knight: And later Hansard, which is the written report of the daily proceedings.
Hon. Paul Calandra: It was a very, very big undertaking. I was very, very proud that the Legislature did this, that we were able to do it as quickly as we could, and that it was done in a way that, now I think is an example for a lot of different Parliaments.
House: (Cheering)
Hon. Paul Calandra: Certainly one of the best days I've had in Parliament, either here provincially or federally.
House: (Singing Happy Birthday)
Anwar Knight: Mamakwa consulted with his family, including his sister and his mother, to provide unanimous consent on when he could speak his language. The date: May 28, 2024, which was also his mother's birthday.
Sol Mamakwa: It was just so meaningful. It was so moving. It was so... it felt good. But it took six years for me to be here to do it.
It was for the people that lost their language. It's for the children that do not speak today. It's for the people who are trying to reconnect to their identity, to their languages. And it's important that, you know, it just shows that how we need to get back to who we are and where we come from. I see it in the young people, people that do not speak the language. They may understand it. And I think that's when I think like, you know, when we talk about Anishininiimowin, Oji-Cree, there's not too many of us.
Anwar Knight: Where he is from, his constituents call him the "Voice of the North." And for the first time, that voice has now been authentically heard. While significant progress has been made in providing official transcripts in English, French, and now Oji-Cree, the logistics of real-time voice interpretation remain a challenge. Advance notice is still required to secure an interpreter, making spontaneous participation more difficult. But Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa remains hopeful.
Sol Mamakwa: There are people behind me. There will come a day where, you know, there is full translation services for these languages. And I think that's one of the goals for me, and this term, is to have full translation services by the time I leave here.
Anwar Knight: For the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, I'm Anwar Knight.