| PHOTOGRAPH BY INDIGENOUS TOURISM ALBERTA / ROAM CREATIVE | |
| By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor
“Most people have a desire to connect to the land. ... They’re seekers. They just don’t know it,” says Brenda Holder, speaking about teaching travelers the age-old plant wisdom of Indigenous cultures. Holder is part of a new wave of tourism leaders in Canada working to connect curious visitors to the knowledge and history of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people.
Long marginalized by the tourism sector, Indigenous communities are helping shape the future of Canada’s travel industry and, in doing so, are bringing their own narratives to the mainstream, reports Jessica Prupas in our story about the rising profile of the country’s Indigenous-owned travel businesses.
“There used to be a sort of ‘pan-Indianism’ promoted in Canadian tourism that contributed to stereotypes about Indigenous people,” says Marilyn Yadultin Jensen, of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada. Things are changing now, thanks to partnerships with the government, industry, and provincial communities.
Indigenous tour operators, including Holder—who shares knowledge from her Cree heritage on tours of rural Alberta through her company Mahikan Trails—and Tracey Klettl, Brenda’s sister and the owner of Painted Warriors, which offers outdoor adventure tours, are among an emerging cohort challenging stereotypes and making a difference. (Pictured above, Klettl demonstrating during a tour how Indigenous hunters use a bow and arrow.)
Cheyenne Hackett, who is of Homalco First Nation descent and leads British Columbia-based experiences from Klahoose Coastal Adventures, performs a Women’s Warrior Song before each of her tours. The haunting prayer is sung over the slow heartbeat of her drums; it marks the decades-long epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. “We’re losing our voices, and our communities just want to be heard,” Hackett says.
Read more about Indigenous British Columbia, home to more than 200 distinct nations, in our Best of the World 2021 special. And check out 24 other amazing places that will inspire your future journeys. (Pictured below, Dora Blondin hangs trout from Great Bear Lake in a teepee in Deline, Northwest Territories. On tours, visitors learn from local guides how to harvest, filet, and smoke fish.)
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