Project Information
About
The Smoke Signals Radio Archive Project was formally launched in 2019. Its purpose is to pay tribute to Dan and Mary Lou Smoke and to highlight their impactful work at Western University and in the broader community. The Smokes are well known at Western as both teachers, and hosts of the long-running Smoke Signals radio program.
The archiving project revolves around a collection of audio recordings of the Smoke Signals radio show dating back to the early 1990s when it began airing on Western University’s campus radio station. The Smokes have donated this wealth of recordings to be organized, archived, studied and made accessible to others.
Current and Past Project Team Members
The Smoke Signals Radio Archive Project is being developed by students and staff at Western, including Dan Smoke and Mary Lou Smoke, who are research partners on the project. We also acknowledge ongoing support from the Faculty of Information & Media Studies and the FIMS Graduate Library.
Current Team Members:
- Dan Smoke, Adjunct Professor, First Nations Studies
- Mary Lou Smoke, Adjunct Professor, First Nations Studies
- Paulette Rothbauer, Associate Professor, FIMS, Project Lead, 2018-
- Pauline Wakeham, Associate Professor and Vice-Chair, English and Writing Studies, Print Journalism Project Lead, 2021-
- Marni Harrington, retired Associate Librarian and former Library Director, FIMS Graduate Library, Project Lead, 2018-2022, consultant 2022-
- Hailey Zanth, MLIS student, FIMS, transcription and Transcription Supervisor, 2021-2023
- Charlotte McClellan, Technical Advisor, FIMS, 2018-
- Oreofe Ogunlude, undergraduate Work Study position, summer 2022
- Shirley Zhang, undergraduate Work Study position, summer 2022
Past Team Members:
- Rachel Anderson, MLIS student, FIMS, Database and Omeka site development, 2021-2022
- Jacob Anstey, Audio Technician, FIMS, 2021-2022
- Janice Forsyth, Associate Professor Sociology and Director of First Nations Studies, 2018-2019
- Amy Hadley, MLIS student, FIMS, transcriptions and interviews, 2019-2021
- Heather Hill, Associate Professor, FIMS, 2018-2019
- Jasmine Li, MLIS student, FIMS, Omeka development, 2018-2019
- Serena Mendizabal, MIT and First Nations Studies, undergraduate Fellow (2018-2020)
- Danica Pawlick-Potts, PhD candidate, FIMS, Graduate Fellow, (2019-2020)
- Carolynn Whitehouse, MLIS student, FIMS, Full-time Co-op Position, Winter 2022
Funding
2021-2022 - FIMS Initiative Funding enabled us to hire additional MLIS students to assist with developing the Omeka site and to continue the important work of transcription. Western Work Study students joined our team this year as well.
2019-2020 - Initial funding for the project was provided through the FIMS Undergraduate/Graduate Fellowship Program, which supported the work of two Indigenous students who worked with the audiocassette donation, organizing and describing the cassette sleeves, cases, and other physical trace elements.
2019 - The Faculty of Social Science providing funding for digitizing the audiocassettes.
Digitization
- Dave Pascoe, Flume Media Archiving
In the News
- Ferguson, K. (2022). "Archive project preserves iconic Indigenous radio program." Western News, 21 June 2022.
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Western University. (2019). "Smoke Signals" Radio Archives Project gets underway.
Publications
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Rothbauer P., A. Hadley, M. Harrington, H. Hill, S. Mendizabal, D. Pawlick-Potts, D. Smoke, and M. Smoke. "Smoke Signals Radio Show Archives: An Introduction." KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.131.
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Hadley, A., M. Harrington, H. Hill, S. Mendizabal, D. Pawlick-Potts, P. Rothbauer, D. Smoke, and M. Smoke. "Listening Together to a Smoke Signals Radio Show Transcript: Responsibility, Reciprocity, Relationships, and Community." accepted paper to Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL), London ON (June 2020 - Conference canceled).
Contact
- Paulette Rothbauer, Project Lead
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Western University is located on the lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations, on territory connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum. With this, we respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) endure in this land we now call Canada, and we accept responsibility to contribute toward revealing and correcting miseducation as well as renewing respectful relationships with Indigenous communities through our teaching, research and community service.