Our Story. Your Experience.

Come, sit, and hear our stories. You are invited to hear them firsthand as a witness to Indigenous realities and perspectives in present-day British Columbia. There are over 160 Indigenous-owned hotels and campsites, museums and cultural centres, wineries, golf courses, guided wildlife tours, and unique experiences in BC – all with stories to share. 

Indigenous Tourism BC: Experience BC Through Our Stories

Our Story. Your Experience.

We all have stories to tell – stories that we share to explain who we are, what is important to us, where we came from, and where we are going. Indigenous stories belong to Indigenous Peoples. It is more important than ever for us to tell our own stories about ourselves, to breathe life into our connections to our ancestors, lands, and ways of life and to share this breath with others.

Our relationship with the land and our unique worldviews are embedded in our languages and the stories we tell. Our stories reflect our values – like caring for the land and each other–and all of the reward and responsibility included. We are increasingly seeing travellers carry these values as they look to visit, experience, and learn from other cultures. Conscious travel in Indigenous BC is more than a spectator sport. It is an exchange with the potential to positively affect ourselves, each other, our relationships, our Indigenous communities, and the lands we live on. Together, we can build something new through our stories and your experiences. 

Every story needs a good listener, a witness. For too long, stories about Indigenous Peoples were told by others, and our own stories were hidden from the public and from each other. Sharing our stories strengthens our connections to our families, cultures, and lands and spreads our love for them. 

As a witness, our stories become a part of your experience–an experience for you to remember and share in the stories you tell others about what you have seen and what matters to you.  As hearts and ears open to the expression of our Indigenous stories, we create an opportunity to sit in this circle together. 

We can build a place beyond storytelling, a home for real conversation. This new place is one where Indigenous People are respected as experts in their own knowledge, history, and culture. It is a place where we can meet heart-to-heart and hear each other’s stories, learn more about our similarities, and explore our differences in a way that leaves us both with the richness of coming together and seeing each other through stories. 

Indigenous Tourism BC honours Indigenous hosts and the humour, beauty, and wisdom they share as storytellers. We also celebrate you, the traveller, for seeking knowledge about Indigenous Peoples from Indigenous Peoples, listening to our stories with open hearts and minds, and planting new seeds around the world as you go forward and share your experience as a witness.  

You are invited. Let’s make new stories together.