Tahieròn:iohte Dan David – an accomplished journalist and educator and an occasional, but vital, contributor to the mRb in recent years – died of cancer this January at the age of 73.

Among many other accomplishments, Dan was the founder of APTN News, and trained generations of journalists both in Canada and in post-apartheid South Africa.

Dan first wrote for the mRb in 2019, weaving a review of Indigenous-language children’s books into a personal essay. He wrote movingly about Dr. Samir Shaheen-Hussain’s Fighting For a Hand to Hold in 2021, and continued to review books occasionally in the ensuing years (his entire mRb oeuvre can be found here).

Dan was kind-hearted as a critic; “I really wanted to like it,” he once lamented while submitting a critical review. And although he was a serious writer who wrote about serious topics, he was very funny and down to earth in his correspondence, often interjecting jokes, elaborate metaphors or folksy anecdotes in his emails. Once, I inquired about his spelling “white” with a capital W; the Chicago Manual of Style had made this change, but one of our young Black contributors had pushed back hard against us following suit, and I was curious to get his perspective. His response: “I don’t know what foul demon possessed me to write ‘White journalist.’ I am going to lay myself down on an anthill to teach myself a stern lesson I’ll never forget. Seriously though, that person is right.” (We ended up not following the CMOS change!)

The last time I asked Dan to review a book, he politely declined. He didn’t want to be pigeonholed into writing only about Indigenous topics, he explained; he also had his hands full with teaching a “Decolonizing Journalism” program at U of T while helping to build a journalism training program in Kanehsatake. Although his health was already well in decline at that point, according to a moving tribute by Lori Schubert of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, he never mentioned being sick, and he continued to work until close to the end.

Dan’s legacy will live on with the legions of journalists he taught and inspired. At the mRb, we will miss his writing, his perspective, and our fun and friendly working relationship. Rest in peace.mRb