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Longtime Indigenous broadcaster and educator Dan Smoke, who hosted Smoke Signals with his wife for decades, has died.
Smoke’s wife, Mary Lou Smoke, announced the death of “the love of her life,” due to complications of pneumonia and Type 2 diabetes, in a Facebook post Monday.
“Dan committed his life to helping all people,” the post said. “He will be missed dearly.”
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Smoke Signals, hosted by the duo since the 1990s, was Canada’s longest-running Indigenous campus radio show. It is heard Sundays on CHRW Radio Western 94.9 FM.
The program welcomed guests from First Nations communities across Canada, educating the public about important cultural practices and traditional gatherings.
It later became a regular feature on London’s CTV station.
Smoke, a member of the Seneca Nation, served as a visiting elder at several colleges, universities, and agencies in Ontario, and was an adjunct professor at Western University, which awarded the couple honourary doctorates in 2022.
Dan and Mary Lou Smoke first became Indigenous activists during the Oka crisis in 1990, a 78-day standoff between Mohawk protesters, police and military over the Town of Oka’s plan to expand a golf course and develop townhouses on disputed land in nearby Kanesatake, on Montreal’s north shore.
Smoke told The Free Press in 2022 that they began speaking up for the Kanesatake peoples because the media were covering only police and government perspectives.
Friends took to social media to express condolences to the Smoke family and share memories of Dan Smoke.
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Andrew Rosser, former head of Pride London, said Smoke taught him “how to love and grow.”
“You taught me so much about what’s really important about our land. I will never forget every moment we shared,” he wrote on Facebook Monday.
WordsFest London, a local literary and creative arts festival, called Smoke “a transformative educator” who “dedicated his life to uplifting the voices of Indigenous peoples.”
“We’ll miss seeing him, sitting in the front row, as he always did, at community events and gatherings,” the group said.
jbieman@postmedia.com
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