Speaker, I don’t know what to feel. I don’t know what to say. But I am very honoured to be able to speak today on behalf of the people of Kiiwetinoong, on behalf of the people that were never allowed to speak their language in colonial institutions. I am proud to support this motion that will allow me to speak my language, Anishininiimowin, in this chamber whenever I choose.

Language is fundamental to our ways of life. It helps us to understand everything. But English is not my first language; it is Anishininiimowin. Anishininiimowin is the language of my people, and I am of my people. Anishininiimowin means “language of the people.” It literally means “human talk.” The English language serves all communication needs and purposes of the English-speaking society; our language, Anishininiimowin, does the same for our people.

Our language, Anishininiimowin, defines and informs who we are. In an engaging relationship with our environment, with our spirituality and physical, what it does is, it establishes our identities as people of the land. Our language, Anishininiimowin, enables us to express our values, our ways of life, our culture, our histories, our geography, our philosophy and our world view.

How important is our language? Our history has directly connected us to the land through place names; for example, where I come from, Mishamikoweesh, Mando Powitic, Aguskoshagahiigun and many others that I grew up learning. These names tell us the historic events that occurred in each of these places. If we lose our language, we lose all of our histories. Our people, the identities are directly connected to the land through place names, as I said: Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, the people of Big Trout Lake; Wahjushkonomiiwihniniiwuk, the people of Muskrat Dam. Again, if we lose our language, we lose our people’s identities.

Through our language, we pass on our culture and our traditions to our children. Hunting moose, hunting duck and geese all have their set of specialized words and phrases. One has to engage in all these activities in order to express and in order to share experiences with others.

Our language connects a person to our culture and traditions, and it is our culture and traditions that shape and define who we are as people of the land. For the individual First Nations person, it develops a sense of identity, cultural stability and cultural strength needed to meet today’s language.

I think it’s important to share some words—when the government devised and implemented its assimilation policy regarding First Nations people, regarding Indians, it recognized how important our language was in maintaining our identities. The government decided to remove the children from their language source and move them to far away places, to the Indian residential schools. There, they forbade the speaking of our languages, a method of taking the Indian out of the Indian.

The Ontario Ministry of Education recognized the importance of children learning in their first language. It has developed curriculum resource material for teaching our languages in classrooms. Our people are reclaiming ownership of our language. We have developed and implemented full immersion education in our community schools. We also have developed and established bilingual-bicultural education in our schools.

Again, language builds our sense of identity and self-esteem, learning and not knowing what it means to be Indigenous, or for me, to be Anisininew. It helps us to understand ceremony and traditional stories, and it supports our communities’ nationhood, safety and ability to govern. It is very powerful, and the language Anishininiimowin is very powerful.

As First Nations people, as Indigenous people, we not only hold language rights, but the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says, “Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.”

Speaker, I’ve been here serving the people of Kiiwetinoong in this House for almost six years. Here, in this building, the standing orders, up until today, have said, “Every member desiring to speak must rise in his or her place and address the Speaker, in either English or French.” If I did differently and spoke in my language, beyond a few words at the beginning or end, the Speaker would have to enforce this standing order. This has been a form of forced assimilation right here in this Legislature. So this is very monumental for me.

This is for the people that are not allowed to speak their language. This is for the people that have lost their language. I think there are always people—our ancestors are watching; our parents are watching. I see this very momentous change.

I want to say as well that this violence of trying to erase our languages should never have been done to us. In the summary report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission they talked about the banning of languages as one of the ways states engage in cultural genocide. In Canada, governments actively tried to deny First Nations peoples our rights to speak our languages. They did this systematically by forcing our children to go to Indian residential schools, where we would be punished if we tried to speak our languages. More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children attended these schools.

I remember attending grade 9. I remember attending grade 10. I thought I was going to a school. It was a night school. I remember we would be punished if we spoke our language. I remember sitting in detention. I remember doing chores as punishment because of who I am, because of me speaking my language—how awful, eh? That’s the experience that we’ve had as people.

I want to read from the TRC summary report. I want to quote this: “In 1890, Indian commissioner Hayter Reed proposed, ‘At the most the native language is only to be used as a vehicle of teaching and should be discontinued as such as soon as practicable.’ English was to be the primary language of instruction.”

These racist and colonizing policies led to language loss. Rose Dorothy Charlie, a residential school survivor quoted in the report, said, “They took my language. They took it right out of my mouth. I never spoke it again.”

Punishments for speaking in their languages were severe. In many cases, children were physically abused for using the only language that they knew. The harm and the devastation this caused for our nations, our children and our families cannot be overstated. But children would keep on speaking it in secret. This is why so many of the languages survive today.

Just a few weeks ago, I spoke in the House about a news story about how First Nations youth were treated in for-profit care homes. In that news story, we heard that they were still being punished for speaking their languages.

The change being made here today should be a model and a beginning for more change to support and care for our languages and to respect our right to speak them. This isn’t just the right thing to do; it is about recognizing what is already our right to speak. Moving forward from the history and continued reality of colonial violence to Indigenous people is not possible without protecting our languages.

The right to use our languages, to revitalize them and pass them on to our next generation and to access education and media in our languages are part of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I’m going to say in closing that I’m very honoured to be able to speak, in the coming months, my language. One of the things I want to do is I want to bring my mom here. My mom does not speak English, but I think sometime in May, I’m going to bring her down here, hopefully, to watch me speak my language, and there will be simultaneous translation.

Today, I’m very hopeful for the change, but not only—all of our people are trying to reconnect and speak in our languages, the younger generations for the elders, and I think this change to the standing orders will matter to the people living not just in Kiiwetinoong but in Ontario, many of whom understand Anishininiimowin, also known as Oji-Cree.

I think it’s important to note that our languages are living and continuing our ways of being, and it’s important that they are key to our health, they are key to our healing. Language is medicine.

Last month, I was in this gathering in Manitoba. Our First Nations in Kiiwetinoong joined with our relatives in Manitoba for their first Anisininew Inninuwag gathering, convened by the Anisininew Gathering of Nations. Probably 90%, 95% of the time, our language was spoken. It was just an amazing, amazing gathering. Our languages serve all our communication needs and purposes, as I said before.

I know I am the only person elected in this chamber who it will directly impact today, but the meaning goes far beyond me. This change should be a reminder to all institutions where people in positions of power prevent First Nations people from speaking our languages that in doing so, you commit colonial violence.

This change should be a starting point for more change here, but in other institutions as well. More efforts should be made to support Indigenous languages in schools across Ontario, as well as more funding for organizations running language revitalization programs. It is especially important for me that this change means the future Indigenous people who get elected as MPPs will not have to face this barrier and will be able to speak their own language from day one.

When I first got elected, this feather was given to me, Speaker. It was a gift from leaders of the Anishinabek Nation. I never shared this, but it’s just something I keep that I want to share with you. It’s dated July 13, 2018. About a month after I first got elected, they had a blessing ceremony for me in my home community. It says:

“Sol,

“In our old customs, an eagle feather is earned through the work it does for himself and his people.

“This eagle feather that is given to you is earned.

“This feather is part of a wing of an eagle, the wings work the hardest.

“This is to remind you that you must do the same for yourself and our people.

“Thank you for standing up and taking a role that is earned by hard work and love for your people.

“Chi-meegwetch!”

I’m just sharing that because I think this standing order change, for me to be able to speak my language, is very momentous for me. I’d like to thank my colleagues here but also across for standing with me to be able to do that. This is part of the journey. This is healing. This is wellness. This is hope. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement, and this is one step towards it. Meegwetch.

Applause.