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Stanley Park Indigenous Walking Tour: Spoken Treasures
5.0
24 Ratings
Vancouver
Immerse yourself in the rich stories and true history of Stanley Park and Vancouver on the Spoken Treasures Indigenous Walking Tour. Hear firsthand accounts from the people who have lived here for millennia and learn about Indigenous culture and the significance of totems.
Immerse yourself in the rich stories and true history of Stanley Park and Vancouver on the Spoken Treasures Indigenous Walking Tour. Hear firsthand accounts from the people who have lived here for millennia and learn about Indigenous culture and the significance of totems.
Duration:
1 hour, 15 minutes
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
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Stanley Park - Tour Description:
Explore iconic Stanley Park and walk the seawall with Indigenous Cultural Ambassadors. Our trained Ambassador-Guides will walk with you along the seawall, a 1.1 km walk, while sharing the stories, history and lore of our great city of Vancouver
through Indigenous Eyes. This tour includes the Aboriginal Indigenous…
-
Stanley Park - Tour Description:
Explore iconic Stanley Park and walk the seawall with Indigenous Cultural Ambassadors. Our trained Ambassador-Guides will walk with you along the seawall, a 1.1 km walk, while sharing the stories, history and lore of our great city of Vancouver
through Indigenous Eyes. This tour includes the Aboriginal Indigenous history of Stanley Park and is completed at the renowned Stanley Park Totem Poles where the guided tour will conclude with the rich stories of the totem poles and the Indigenous peoples who carved them.
Please note we are operating on select days this summer due to health and wellness management during Covid. Our days of operation are Tuesdays and Wednesdays for July and August
What's Included
- Professional local guide
- Admission to all sites
- Comfortable transportation
- Scenic photo stops
- Small group size for a personalized experience
- Learn about local culture and history
- Lunch at a traditional restaurant
- Free time to explore on your own
- Souvenirs available for purchase
- Pick-up and drop-off at your accommodation
- Professional local guide
- Admission to all sites
- Comfortable transportation
- Scenic photo stops
- Small group size for a personalized experience
- Learn about local culture and history
- Lunch at a traditional restaurant
- Free time to explore on your own
- Souvenirs available for purchase
- Pick-up and drop-off at your accommodation
What's Not Included
- Private transportation
- Private transportation
Additional Information
Spoken Treasures - Indigenous Walking Tour delivers the profound narratives and authentic history of Stanley Park and Vancouver city. You will encounter tales and narratives straight from the folks who have inhabited this area for thousands of years. Talaysay Tours Indigenous guides - ambassadors disseminate both Indigenous culture, our mutual past of…
Spoken Treasures - Indigenous Walking Tour delivers the profound narratives and authentic history of Stanley Park and Vancouver city. You will encounter tales and narratives straight from the folks who have inhabited this area for thousands of years. Talaysay Tours Indigenous guides - ambassadors disseminate both Indigenous culture, our mutual past of the vicinity, and the hopes of contemporary indigenous communities. We make our guests aware of the genuine significance and worth of the totems, sculpted by Indigenous groups along the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Location
1100 Stanley Park Dr
Stanley Park Drive
Your guide will meet you in front of the Stanley Park Information Booth. When you arrive you will noticeable see the Horsedrawn Tours right beside the meeting location. Your guide will be standing in front of the grey building. There will be green tables on the south side.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(24 Ratings)
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Tommy
Aug 6, 2025
New friends in the Forest - 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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ellentn7440zn
Jul 14, 2025
So informative and meaningful! - 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!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
954jackg
Jul 11, 2025
A fantastic tour by a fantastic guide - we would recommend it to anyone - 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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Troopersj
Apr 17, 2025
Interesting tour from an indigenous perspective - 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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Climber28437667938
Oct 21, 2024
Amazing worth the time and money - On October 11th my group of Philadelphia Flyers fans had the pleasure of taking this tour it was Amazing ! Slow easy pace all ages can be a part of this tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kathleeng607
Jul 27, 2024
An entertaining and thought provoking tour. - We enjoyed a fascinating tour in Stanley park as Shay gave a wonderful introduction to the lives, cultures and histories of the communities who once lived on that land. She has so much knowledge and her personal passion is infectious. We all learned so much, and she kept two teens hooked for an hour. Thanks so much to both Shay and Victor for their time and for sharing their own stories. An experience we won’t forget!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Susan
Jul 8, 2024
Fascinating, yet sad oral history. - It’s always important to acknowledge the First Nations people wherever we go and we did an amazing tour with Sera Lewis Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Guide. She showed us another perspective on Stanley Park and outlined the horrific treatment of her ancestors who had lived there long before the colonisers arrived. She painted a picture of a nomadic people who spent summers in the mountains and winters in the park before the damaging sea wall was built. Vancouver would still be a thriving city today but a more stable and less expensive and privileged place if it had grown alongside Squamish and other tribes instead of attempting to destroy their heritage.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Saibei_z
Sep 4, 2023
I had questions of why... - I had questions of why people put masks when they were doing ceremonies, and who were the people's face figures on the Totem poles. Are these faces Gods of Sun, moon, river, or faces of ancestors？
We went to the tour with tour guide Patrick. He gave the explanation for these questions. The faces on the Totem Poles were the ancestors. The lowest on the pole was the eldest. Next generations were on the elder's shoulders.
We are Manchu, from northern China. We had Totem poles in our culture too. The faces on the poles were ancestors' faces. If Indigenous were migrated from Easten Asia, three times large migrations around 20 thousand years ago, since we share the same culture, this might be a prove of origin of Indigenous.
Nice guide, nice tour.
Review provided by Viator
Jacob_z
Aug 28, 2023
Great walk, great broad exposure to Stanley park - Beautiful scenery! We had a walk with Patrick, he was very nice and knowledgeable of the surrounding area. He is also very knowledgeable of the various tribes of Vancouver and their history/culture. Loved the vibe and energy of the walk, would easily do it again. Also our guide Patrick was very eager to answer any questions and was just one of the nicest people I’ve met so far!
Review provided by Viator
Emilycl7530an
Jul 5, 2023
Fantastic overview of the undocumented stories - Amazing experience! Patrick gave us a rich history and ensured we understood what each community went through and what the art means to each community.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
