Mary Lou Smoke's deep yearning to understand the Anishinaabe heritage of her people in Batchawana Bay began before she was eight years old.
"We grew up surviving as Native people, but we didn't know anything about being Native," Smoke said. "I exasperated my mother with frequent questions about what our people used to do. She just said, Oh Mary Lou, you'll find out one day.'"
When she did, it sparked a personal mission that led to her life's work preserving and sharing Indigenous knowledge from many communities.
Smoke, LLD'22, is continuing this work at Western as the new Elder-in-Residence at the Wampum Learning Lodge. Over the next two years, she will be available to meet with Indigenous students and the wider Western community for compassionate conversations, song and Indigenous teachings.
"I hope that people who have questions about their culture or ceremonies will come ask me. If I don't know, I can find out from people who do know," she said.
"My mom always said, You always have to take care of your brothers and sisters.' She didn't only mean my siblings; she meant our brothers and sisters as Native people. It was a big responsibility, but I took it seriously because I really want to help our people." - Mary Lou Smoke, Elder-in-Residence 2025-2027
Smoke is pleased the Wampum Learning Lodge opens cross cultural dialogue and makes Indigenous ways of knowing and being accessible to Indigenous students while also supporting their education.
"They can see others like them and see they're all after the same goals of getting an education," she said. "I can teach them how to take part in cultural practices without them having the struggles I did."
Mary Lou Smoke inspired by Elders' teachings amid cultural repression
Smoke's own path toward understanding Indigenous spirituality and cultures was ignited by a movement that began in secret - by necessity after generations of repression. The Indian Act heavily regulated daily existence in Indigenous communities. An Indian agent lived on reserves to monitor residents and enforce laws such as the ban on speaking their own language. Prior to 1951, even speaking about or displaying their culture was forbidden, yet the Elders kept it alive under the cover of night.
"Back then, without electricity, everyone went to bed when the sun went down. But when the Indian agent was sleeping, our people marched deep into the bush and made a fire for ceremonies," Smoke said. "They had sweat lodges, shaking tents and fasting ceremonies, then walked back before sunrise."
Smoke continually sought more original teachings from Indigenous people, a passion she would later share with her husband of 47 years, the late Dan (Asayenes) Smoke. The two were elevated to Elder status in a ceremony at age 42, becoming the youngest members of the Elders Council at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto.
"When we'd introduce ourselves to other Elders, some 80 years old and beyond, we'd always say, We're Elders in training,'" she said.
Together, through decades of broadcasting, the Smokes gave voice to Indigenous perspectives. When armed standoffs erupted at Oka, Que., and in Ipperwash, Ont., they began appearing in 15-minute weekly segments on Western's CHRW radio station to share views often absent from mainstream coverage.
Smoke Signals amplified Indigenous voices through media
That grew into 33 years of Smoke Signals, the longest-running campus radio program in Canada. Throughout, the couple travelled across North America recording Elders at gatherings and ceremonies to document knowledge and stories.
"We were students of life, still learning," Smoke said. "Whatever I learn, I share."
In the late 90s, Smoke Signals also became a weekly commentary on CFPL-TV in London, Ont., then known as The New PL. When the station sought support for its CRTC licence renewal in 2002, the Smokes made a formal submission in person at the hearing in Gatineau, Que.
The station needed to demonstrate its programming reflected the interests of local audiences. The Smokes had just ten minutes to make their case before their microphone would be turned off.
"The CRTC guy had a timer on as we told the commission how The New PL let us speak about Indigenous issues like water quality on reserves, and how they rarely edited us."
When their time was up, the Smokes asked if they could sing an honour song as a show of respect for members of the media present who'd carried their messages to wide audiences. The commission agreed.
"Dan and I sang the Migizi (Eagle) song. We went over our 10 minutes, but they didn't shut us off. At the end, we got a standing ovation from the CRTC."
Preserving Indigenous wisdom through music
That was not the first time Smoke used music to connect to non-Indigenous people. A celebrated singer inducted into the Forest City London Music Hall of Fame in 2019, Smoke is still using music to build bridges.
The late Dan (Asayenes) Smoke and Mary Lou Smoke (Faculty of Media and Information Studies)
One of her favourite songs to teach is The Water Song, a tribute to the importance of safeguarding water for future generations. She once met a teacher who showed her a video of 350 students - most of them non-Indigenous - singing the song on World Water Day.
"I got big tears in my eyes and said, Dan, our work is paying off!" she recalled.
Smoke also wrote monthly columns on traditional protocol and culture for Indigenous newspapers for seven years, producing 82 articles. The Smokes' collective work has been digitized and preserved in the Smoke Signals Radio Archive housed in the FIMS Graduate Library at Western.
"Students transcribed the articles and the cassette tapes. So now you can access knowledge and stories from Elders who have passed on," Smoke said. "It's preserved into perpetuity, which I think is pretty special."
Smoke remains driven by her responsibility to advance cultural revitalization and care for Indigenous people.
"The most important thing is ensuring the next seven generations have a place to live and clean water for survival. It's my responsibility as an Elder and as a woman to pass on the teachings I have learned."
