NOTE: All are welcome. Lunch will be served. Thanks to the Law Foundation of Ontario for their support of this new initiative. Please join us!
About this Teaching Series
Indigenous legal orders operate across Turtle Island and have for thousands of years. While the Nations and laws are diverse, all legal orders have, at their core, ethical codes of conduct that could be used in Canadian law schools as a framework to teach legal ethics. In this series of teachings, we will welcome Elders, Knowledge Keepers and other Traditional Teachers to share stories and lead discussions on how we can use Indigenous law to create more ethical lawyers in the Canadian justice system.
Speaker Bios
Dan and Mary Lou Smoke are an exceptional couple, who for many years, have fostered and advanced racial harmony and the elimination of discrimination in the City of London community. It has been through their individual and collective efforts of sharing knowledge of the First Nations faith, history and culture that they have greatly enhanced cross-cultural understanding, healed and improved the climate of race relations in London, and provided new means of overcoming barriers and differences.
In recognizing as much, the City of London, Ontario named Dan and Mary Lou Smoke to the 2001 Mayor's New Year's Honours List in the "Humanitarian" category.
Dan and Mary Lou are positive role models and are held in high esteem within the Native and non-Native communities. Dan and Mary Lou often work together conducting opening and closing ceremonies at events such as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, UN Human Rights Day, National Aboriginal Day, International Women’s Day, Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre (Dec. 6th), V-Day for Anti Violence Against Indigenous Women, and special dinners, banquets such as the “Red Leaf Dinner” for PM Jean Chrétien at the London Convention Center in 1996.
The radio program, Smoke Signals, went on the air in September, 1990. They were approached by CHRW, to be Radio hosts to come on the air to help explain the perspective of Indigenous People in the Reclamation of 'The Pines,' Mohawk Land in Kanehsatake, Quebec, near the municipality of Oka, Quebec. They were in contact with some of the radio hosts and hostesses of the Kahnesatake Community radio. They interviewed principal people involved in the reclamation, which was referred to as an "occupation" by the mainstream media. After helping with the Kanehsatake Mohawk story, they became involved in the Reclamation of Ipperwash Provincial Park by members of the Stoney Point Nation, in 1995. They were covering the radio story of the Land of Aazhoodena, the Stoney Point homeland, which included Ipperwash Provincial Park, as well as the Camp Ipperwash, which was operated by the federal Department of National Defense. They stayed with the story until the completion of the Ipperwash Commission of Inquiry called by the Province of Ontario. Subsequent to the conclusion they continued to remain in contact with Stoney Point people. They were broadcasting to the Indigenous urban population of London, Ontario which has a population of 17,000. They were also broadcasting to five local First Nation communities: the Chippewas of the Thames; the Oneida Settlement; the Munsee Delaware Nation; the Moraviantown Delaware Nation as well as the Caldwell Nation of Chatham Kent. Smoke Signals Radio was the main Indigenous media outlet in London, Ontario and they continue this role today. They provide a 90-minute radio program of: traditional teachings, Indigenous Art; Indigenous Music and current Public Affairs of Indigenous News. They are heard on Sunday nights, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Since 1996, they have a global presence on the radio station's website: www.radiowestern.ca They have maintained a steady relationship with the local Indigenous Service Providers and community organizations. They continue to provide a voice for Indigenous students attending Western University maintaining a media outlet for Indigenous Student Services and the First Nations Studies Department. They continue to help provide a ceremonial presence on campus with cultural and ceremonial protocols.
Dan and Mary Lou explained to the CHRW Program Director and Station Manager that they do not belong in a 'Multicultural' genre or category, because they did not immigrate from some foreign country to Canada. So, in 2014 they were moved to the Outstanding Specialty Program Category, which is in the same category as the Country & Western programs, the Blues Program, the Jazz Programs et al......They have won the Outstanding Specialty Program twice.
Dan is a member of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Among his many credits, Dan is an Adjunct Professor at Western University. He has been an invited speaker at the AGM of the Canadian Association of Journalists in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2005. Dan has been working with traditional knowledge carriers from many Nations which include: Cree, Lakota, Ojibway, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida and Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee. He has also been working with an Ojibway Medicine Man to learn "the pipe and the fasting ceremonies." Both he and Mary Lou help to conduct purification ceremonies for the people when requested, and have been holding New Year's Eve sweat lodge ceremonies for the past 18 years in the London area.
Mary Lou, a member of the Ojibway Nation, is a gifted writer, singer, guitarist and traditional drummer who willingly volunteers and shares her talents with the community at large. Mary Lou has performed internationally (Germany, Holland), nationally (1976 Olympics) and locally (Grand Theatre, London and Ontario Place, Toronto). She also performs at traditional pow wows and Aboriginal Music Festivals. She is the founding member of a local women's drumming group and has contributed to the healing and well- being of Native and non-Native women and to a greater understanding between women of many faiths. The drum group is called the "Ogitchidaw Kwe Wag Singers."(translates to Warrior Women)
Their community activism began in the Summer of 1990, with the Reclamation of the Pines, taking place at Kanehsatake, Quebec. The nearby municipality of Oka was planning to develop and excavate this sacred site of the Mohawk People. It was a sacred burial site, as well as an area for picking medicine. The resulting 68 day standoff resulted in the incubation of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples. In London, Ontario, an historic alliance of Indigenous and Settler Allies formed to raise awareness of Indigenous culture and identity via speakers, artists and Elders brought in to educate the public. This particular "alliance building," resulted in the planting of a White Pine Tree, the Tree of Peace, a symbol of the Great Law of Peace Constitution of the Haudenosaunee People, on July 11th, 1991, one year after the Quebec SQ, began firing "live ammunition" at Mohawk women, men and children. The tree is located in the Peace Garden in downtown London, next to the Forks of the Thames. A plaque commemorates the tree and the alliance.
This same alliance formed again when the Stoney Point people of Aazhoodena, near Forest, Ontario, moved back on to their traditional territory, which was expropriated under the War Measures Act in 1942 to create Camp Ipperwash along the shores of Lake Huron. The Department of National Defence refused to clean up unexploded munitions and return the land back to its original beauty when they took it from the Stoney Point people. The alliance of London and "the region Indigenous and non-Native people" provided support and were first to be notified when Dudley George was "extra-judicially executed" by the provincial Ontario Provincial Police on September 5, 1995. A larger alliance formed to help initiate a Public Inquiry into the death of Dudley George. They were successful, when the Mike Harris, PC Government lost the election to the Dalton McGuinty Liberal government in 2002. A Public Inquiry into Ipperwash was called and began proceedings in 2004, completing a report and recommendations in 2007. Throughout these two campaigns, Mary Lou and Dan provided cultural counselling, ceremonial protocols, as well as pipe, purification, Eagle Feather and healing ceremonies as required for this alliance.
"Through their extraordinary volunteer efforts, Dan and Mary Lou Smoke are an inspiration to those who believe in an inclusive community where new knowledge and understanding can lead to healing, harmony and peaceful co-existence."
Since 2006, the Smokes have taught a course at Western University for the First Nations Studies Department, cross-listed with the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, (FIMS), entitled, "The Representation of Indigenous Issues in the Mainstream and Alternative News Media." It is a first year journalism/media course housed in the Media and Information Technoculture Department (MIT). In 2008, they were awarded the University Students Council of Western University Teachers of Excellence Award for their teaching methods, which include ceremonial protocols. Since 2009, they have taught a course, entitled, "An Introduction to Indigenous Spirituality" at Brescia University College, an affiliate of Western University. Brescia University is the only women’s University in Canada today. In 2013 Mary Lou and Dan were appointed as Adjunct Professors of the First Nations Studies Department at Western University.
Recently, in 2018, Mary Lou and Dan were appointed for a five year term as Adjunct Assistant Professors in the Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health. Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University
In 2017 during the Summer Intersession, Mary Lou and Dan taught on online course at Fanshawe College. This 15-week course was Traditional Indigenous Knowledge for the Department of Language and Liberal Arts at Fanshawe College.
In 2013, Mary Lou was selected to be one of the YMCA’s Southwestern Ontario Women of Excellence Award Winners in the Category of Education and Culture. At the Awards Ceremony in the London Convention Center, Mary Lou was honoured in traditional Indigenous Fashion. A Women's Drum Group from Waterloo/Guelph who call themselves "The Good Hearted Women Singers," sang an Honour Song for Mary Lou, to recognize her honour.
They continue to be Cultural Counsellors and Visiting Elders for a number of Colleges, Universities, Agencies and Organizational Service Providers: University of Guelph; University of Waterloo; University of Toronto and at Fanshawe College, London, Ontario as well as at Western University.
Recently they were recognized as Elders with the Aboriginal Resource Center at the University of Guelph since 2004.
For the past 10 years they have been the SW Ontario Elders for the “Call To The Bar” Convocation ceremony for graduating Lawyers for the Law Society of Ontario. They sit with the Bench Society of the LSO, and they "congratulate the Indigenous Lawyers who graduate each year." A minimum of 3 or 4 Indigenous Lawyers are called to the Bar each year which is becoming a fine tradition.
Mary Lou and Dan are Elders for the Thames Valley District School Board, as well as the Grand River Board of Education in Guelph, Ontario. They work closely with the TVDSB Aboriginal Liaison and the UGDSB Diversity Officer to help provide Cultural Competency and Ceremonial protocols. They also visit the schools to provide cultural presentations. They have worked with the Boards for the past 14 years.
In Indigenous Culture , the term “Elder” is conferred by the community. Mary Lou and Dan like to be called Teachers and Helpers since they are still young. But, they have been helping at the Dodem Kanonhsa Clan Lodge for Elders at the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) Offices since 2000. The Lodge was opened to the public in l998 following the lead of the KUMIK Elders Lodge in Gatineau, Quebec at the INAC National Headquarters. They were invited to the KUMIK on several occasions to provide ceremonial protocol, cultural workshops, public speaking , storytelling, Eagle Feather presentations, and cultural networking with Ottawa Organizations like the Wabano Health Center and other Federal Government offices. They were recently at the KUMIK Elders Lodge for a week in September from Sept. 23 - 28, 2019. They plan on returning to the KUMIK for two weeks in April 2020.
The Smokes have conducted the Opening Ceremonies for the R.W.B. Jackson Lecture, at the University of Toronto on Indigenous Education in Canada. In 2013 the Lecturers were the Right Honourable Paul Martin and the Former National Chief of The Assembly of First Nations Shawn A-in-chut Atleo.
Dan is currently the Co-Chairperson of the CARAS JUNO category of the "Indigenous Artist and Group Of The Year" committee. Both he and Mary Lou have served as Committee Members, or as Judges for CARAS since 1994. London, Ontario was host to the JUNOs this year. Dan and Mary Lou helped with the five JUNO Indigenous Nominees as their Host and Hostess.
They both cherish their role as Grandparents to 18 year old Grandson, Ryan. Ryan lives near the Ontario Police College, near Aylmer, Ontario in Springfield. His grandparents are the Elders for the Native Recruits attending the OPC. They conduct a Sunrise Ceremony annually on June 21st, and they participate in the “March Past,” graduation Convocation of the Ontario Police College Recruits.
In 2014 at a public ceremony in Toronto, Ontario, Mary Lou and Dan were conferred with an Honourary Degree in Natural Laws, Honoris Causa. The President, Dr. Ganguly "Bob" Biswajit, and the Chancellor, Dr. Roger Hensall of the Noble Environmental Peace University, based in India, conducted the joyous occasion, in presenting the degrees. Dr. Isaac Day, an Ojibway Medicine Man, also conducted an eagle Feather Presentation Ceremony with two Eagle Feathers to Mary Lou and Dan. The two Recognitions were an historic occasion being in conjunction with one another.
In 2015 and 2016, and 2019, the radio program, "Smoke Signals" was recognized with a Silver Arrow Award by the Native American Music Awards and SPIRIT Wind Productions of the USA.
In 2014 and 2016, "Smoke Signals" was awarded the "Outstanding Specialty Program" at the CHRW, 94.9 FM Radio and TV Awards in London Ontario. The program is in its 30th year of broadcasting on Sunday nights, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. EST on www.radiowestern.ca They have been recognized by the National Community and Campus Radio Association, (NCCRA), and the CRTC, as the longest serving Indigenous Radio Program, in Canada today.
