He left residential school when he was 15. Now he's going back for the first time.

In 1985, Solomon Mamakwa was forced to attend Stirland Lake Indian Residential school in Northwest Ontario. He's now an Ontario MPP with the Ontario New Democratic Party for the riding of Kiiwetinoong. 

Mamakwa left the school when he was 15 and hasn't returned since. In The Knowing, journalist Tanya Talaga joins Mamakwa as he revisits Stirling Lake for the first time. 

"It'll be interesting to see the buildings themselves," said Mamakwa in episode two of the four-part series. "The classrooms, the chapel, the dining room. That's just something that you don't really think about or talk about, right?"

The school closed in 1991.

Today, the buildings and property are owned by members of Weagamow or Round Lake First Nation. 

As they toured the school, Mamakwa recalled some details about the dormitories — how many boys were living in each and where beds were placed. 

"I remember missing my family. I remember missing hunting. I remember missing going fishing, Going to camp. That's when I stopped camping … 13."

"I'm in the pictures. I remember some of them," he notes as he looks through old yearbooks and photos of himself and other former students. 

"When I looked through the yearbook, I thought there was more of us, but there wasn't that many of us. And even when I was in grade nine, you know the students I came with … there's a lot of them that are not here anymore. And, you think about what happened to them … We were so young, so young."

Where to watch The Knowing

The Knowing premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024.

Watch now on CBC Gem and the CBC Docs YouTube channel.