Gesprochene Schätze: Stanley Park Indigenous Walking Tour

Wonderful experience that is both highly educational and informative but also intentional. Easily walkable with breaks to stand and sit. Jayden was an excellent guide. We enjoyed learning about the rich cultural history of the First Nations communities.

The Spoken Treasures of Stanley Park tour is a thoughtful and engaging walk through one of the world's great urban parks. Covering about a kilometre and a half in 75 minutes, it moves at a relaxed pace while traversing significant historical and cultural ground. Our group of four was guided by Ruby, Amira, and Jaden, who brought the stories of Stanley Park to life: the richness of the Pacific temperate rainforest, how the ocean shaped the lives and cultures of the peoples of this place, and the deep, continuous history of those who have called this land home for thousands of years. The highlight for our group was Jaden's moving account of the Indigenous women who helped save settlers' lives during the Great Fire of 1886, which levelled Vancouver in a matter of hours. It took the City of Vancouver more than 130 years to formally acknowledge that contribution, a fact that lands hard and should. This is an excellent tour for visitors who want more than scenery, and for locals ready to engage honestly with the history beneath their feet. If you're curious about Indigenous traditions, ecological knowledge, and the layered story of this place, Spoken Treasures delivers.

Our walk with Talaysay was the best part of our stay in Vancouver. She was an incredibly effective and personable guide. I enjoyed learning about the connections between her family, the land, and the villages located in what is now called Stanley Park. She shared stories about her mother, aunt, grandmother, and community that made those connections vivid - the western hemlock's pinecones, tea, lacrosse, bathing in the Salish Sea, language, ceremony, cedar boughs, and more. I will remember a lot from this experience. Thank you for sharing the afternoon with us!

It was raining like hell. We were able to learn how to utilize trees as an indigenous people, the history of the land, the image of the old scenery of the maple tree, the meaning of the totem pole, and so on. They also answered our questions attentively.

Shae was an incredible guide. Really helped us understand the first nation history, culture, and challenges set in the back drop of Stanley Park.

We really enjoyed speaking with our tour guide. She was knowledgeable and very engaging. We have some experience of indigenous people’s history in New Zealand and curate/ take pilgrimages to help people engage with indigenous history in Aotearoa . See pilgrimagesaotearoa.nz This spoken story journey was very interesting.

We had the privilege of meeting Ruby & touring Stanley Park together where she shared her incredible knowledge of the peoples and the land. Learning about all the plants and their powers felt a bit like making friends very far from our home country. It was a beautiful & enriching experience which will be remembered by us very fondly.

Wow, what a wonderful tour! Seraphine was a wealth of knowledge and so generous in her sharing and teaching. I learned far more about the ecology and history of Stanley Park than I ever would have on my own. I was so glad to have found a tour with an Indigenous focus because I wanted a tour informed by history, culture, and current issues. I got exactly that and so much more! Because this tour ends at the totem poles, I would recommend planning for an additional 20-30 minutes minimum after the tour to check out the totem poles and surrounding area. (I was rushing to leave but I wish I had allowed myself more time afterwards). I left Stanley Park wishing I could spend all day learning from the environment. So appreciative for the incredible tour. Well worth it!!

We took the Spoken Treasures tours, lead by Seraphine and assisted by Hannah, and we couldn’t have had a better experience. It was just me and my partner on the tour that day, but that didn’t phase Seraphine at all. She gave an incredibly compelling and rich retelling of the indigenous history of Stanley Park and Vancouver more generally. She taught us about the various indigenous groups that lived in the park, and how they benefited from the bountiful sources of food and building materials. She explained that the people who lived there were wealthy and developed such that they hosted huge gatherings and feasts with other indigenous people from other areas. She also covered the colonialist history of the development of Vancouver, including the ruinous effect of the introduction of Old World diseases to the indigenous people, and the theft of the land where they laid their dead to rest, under the Indian Act. She explained all of this and so much more in an engaging and approachable way, and was able to answer our questions without losing her train of thought. The whole experience was fantastic! Whether you live in the area or are visiting, you owe it to yourself to take this tour - I guarantee that it will give you insight and perhaps an entirely different perspective of the park, the city, and the whole country.

As we were the only couple on the tour we were treated to a personal walk through Stanley Park. Our guide Seraphine was very pleasant and very knowledgeable. We enjoyed talking to her and hearing her stories and history of her people from the Vancouver area. Easy tour walking on flat ground and suitable for all.