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Authentic Indigenous recognizes Moccasin Trails for building community partnerships that create sustainable cultural learning opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. Guiding guests on sustainable journeys that the Interior Indigenous Nations have made for many generations.
Interpretive canoe and walking journeys at Moccasin Trails focus on direct experience and sensory immersion in Thompson Okanagan, the Traditional Territory of the Secwepemc, Syilx and Nlaka’pamux People. These experiences are led by knowledge keepers that share and strengthen their connection to lndigenous land and culture through songs, stories, ceremonies and language. These ancestral land tours are a traditional Indigenous method of knowledge transfer; each lesson embedded by smell, sight, taste, sound, and touch.
CULTURE
Unique partnerships and local cultural guides make Indigenous cultural experiences at Moccasin Trails genuinely authentic. All five senses are engaged on tours, and each guide uses personal stories to share the experience of living as an Indigenous person in present-day BC. Guides do not perform Indigenous identity on the land; they walk and paddle as the living generation on ancestral lands. Secwepemc language use and tours to important cultural sites, including pictographs, connect Indigenous culture directly to the land and teach guests how to be respectful of these places. Moccasin Trails invites guests to accept responsibility as a witness to cultural sites and become an ambassador for their preservation.
COMMUNITY
Moccasin Trails operates in the Interior region of BC, a historic region of trade and meeting places for the interior salish people. The staff are all local Indigenous cultural leaders in their own right and honour their commitments to the Indigenous community while maintaining and sharing their ongoing cultural learning path with non-Indigenous community members and tourists. Moccasin Trails partners with School District 73 and district 23 along with regional Universities and Colleges to provide educational programming on the land for young students to learn local Indigenous history and explore ideas related to culture and stewardship. The tour company supports Tourism Management and Indigenous Studies programs at Thompson Rivers University. It works with local hotels and Tourism Associations to connect guests looking for an Authentic Indigenous experience.
SUSTAINABILITY
Moccasin Trails builds its philosophy and business on sustainable cultural and environmental models. The company provides employment opportunities to Indigenous youth, combined with a mentorship program, and offers ownership shares to staff. Through mentorship and land-based learning, the team is ever-growing and sharing their own cultural experiences with others. The unique tours rely on travel by foot and canoe–two fossil-fuel-free traditional Indigenous modes of transit. The journeys adopt a strict pack-in, pack-out protocol so that nothing is left behind, and the company is currently exploring ways to make their tours plastic-free. Each water and land tour begins with a feeding of the land ceremony dedicated to the responsibility we all share in the care of the earth.
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We walk gently and encourage education and exploration about the rich and diverse Indigenous cultures in British Columbia.