Spoken Treasures: Stanley Park Indigenous Walking Tour
Overview
Available languages
1 hour 15 minutes
Mobile ticket
Spoken Treasures - Indigenous Walking Tour shares with you the rich stories and true history of Stanley Park and the city of Vancouver. You will hear stories and accounts directly from the people who have lived here for millennia. Talaysay Tours Indigenous guides - ambassadors share both Indigenous culture, our shared history of the region and the aspirations of the indigenous communities today. We also inform our guests of the true meanings and values of the totems that were carved by Indigenous groups up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Additional Info
Wheelchair accessible
Public transportation options are available nearby
Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
What‘s Included
Guided Tour
Private transportation
What To Expect
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
Options
Spoken Treasures: Stanley Park Indigenous Walking Tour
Reviews
26 reviews
Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
Shae was an incredible...
Bret M,
Sep 17, 2025
- Review from Viator
5.00Shae was an incredible guide. Really helped us understand the first nation history, culture, and challenges set in the back drop of Stanley Park.
Significant Stories
sarahbF2017NM,
Aug 27, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00We really enjoyed speaking with our tour guide. She was knowledgeable and very engaging. We have some experience of indigenous people’s history in New Zealand and curate/ take pilgrimages to help people engage with indigenous history in Aotearoa . See pilgrimagesaotearoa.nz This spoken story journey was very interesting.
New friends in the Forest
Tommy F,
Aug 6, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00We 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.
So informative and meaningful!
ellentN7440ZN,
Jul 14, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Wow, 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!!
A fantastic tour by a fantastic guide - we would recommend it to anyone
954jackg,
Jul 11, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00We 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.
Interesting tour from an indigenous perspective
Troopersj,
Apr 17, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00As 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.
Amazing worth the time and money
Climber28437667938,
Oct 21, 2024
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00On 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.
An entertaining and thought provoking tour.
KathleenG607,
Jul 27, 2024
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00We 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!
Fascinating, yet sad oral history.
Susan H,
Jul 8, 2024
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00It’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.
I had questions of why...
Saibei Z,
Sep 4, 2023
- Review from Viator
5.00I 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.
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Operated by Talaysay Tours