Moccasin Trails offers all-inclusive paddling and walking tours with cultural and spiritual experiences on the lands and waters of the Syilx and Secwépemc Peoples. With an emphasis on nature, culture, and healing, tours include time with local First Nations storytellers, residential school survivors, and Knowledge Keepers who host thought-provoking conversations, hands-on activities, and learning on the land that respects and benefits local First Nations.
“We wanted to bring people from around the world on the ancestral paths our people walked, have them taste the food we ate, sing the songs we sang, hear the stories that were passed down orally from generations ago, and travel down the rivers we canoed. In order to truly learn about our culture we felt the only way was to touch, smell, see, hear, and feel it.”
for their focus on educating visitors on Indigenous diversity, no-emission traditional modes of travel, and commitment to grow relationships and respect protocols that support a deeper level of cultural sharing for the benefit of local First Nations, their Peoples, and Territories.
Moccasin Trails is an award-winning tour company built on strong cultural cornerstones that make deeper cultural learning experiences possible for guests. Kukpi7 Chief Frank Antoine and Greg Hopf lead with respectful relationships and support from the Secwépemc Nation and Syilx Nation on whose lands the tours take place.
Song, story, and ceremony. Both Frank and Greg believe leadership and strength comes from community. Moccasin Trails tours in Kamloops, Kelowna, and Osoyoos, BC, are able to introduce guests to the medicines of being on the land, song, story, and ceremony. This deeper level of cultural sharing with non-Indigenous guests is only possible because of the knowledge, gifts, and time of Syilx and Secwépemc communities, storytellers, Knowledge Keepers, Elders, and Indian residential school survivors and their respectful relationships and observance of local First Nations protocols.
Honouring Syilx and Secwépemc Cultures and Communities. Moccasin Trails shares the importance of preserving and honouring Syilx and Secwépemc languages, stories, food, ceremony, dance, political structure, people, animals, and land. They promote understanding and empathy by hosting thoughtful and uncomfortable conversations with survivors of residential schools around a fire in an authentically constructed Secwépemc Pit House.
Cultural tourism journeys and business journeys. Medicines of being on the land, ceremony, song, water, fire are shared by appropriate Knowledge Keepers who have learned proper protocol and have permission to share. The award-winning tour company teaches in a traditional way–by travelling the land and telling stories.
Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre Moccasin Trails provides cultural tourism journeys and business journeys that support Indigenous communities, businesses, and organizations navigate complex challenges and achieve sustainable growth. They encourage public learning and host corporate, community, school, and family tours.
Relationships come first always. The business focuses first on relationship building with First Nations governments. They hire from local First Nations and follow protocols to honour those who share their knowledge, stories, and time with honoraria. When hosting a tour in a specific community, Moccasin Trails hires local guides, cooks, and storytellers, and brings in local FN Elders, Knowledge Keepers, youth, and leadership from that Nation.
They value community involvement, participate at cultural events like powwows, and donate to organizations like Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
Moccasin Trails’s tours share culture and contribute to the community and economy where they operate. Tours make stops at local Indigenous businesses and experiences like the Sncewips Heritage Museum and Kekuli Café in West Kelowna. And because the true strength and leadership comes from the People and their communities, Moccasin Trails always considers the benefit of local First Nations, their Peoples and Territories, in all business and interactions. Doing so is a measure to ensure that local cultures and economies thrive and endure.
Youth for the future. Youth are encouraged to join tours to learn and envision a future in cultural tourism and environmentally friendly land-based economies. Active engagement and support of youth contributes to sustainability of development, economy, lands, and culture.
Walk, paddle, learn. Moccasin Trails offers tours that include traditional modes of transportation like walking and paddling, both of which mean a smaller carbon footprint on the lands of the Syilx and Secwepemc. They focus on local places and people and give back to them and educate guests on ways to honour and give back to the hosts, their communities, and their precious lands and waters and all that lives there.
