Talking Totem Tours
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ECO -TOUR SUPPLIES

The Aboriginal Guides we Work with

Talking Totem Tours is proud to present a line-up of the top expert Aboriginal guides in their fields, at breath-taking destinations, across British Columbia.

The Aboriginal guides available to accompany your tours are expert interpreters of their territories, history, traditions and culture.

We even have top carvers that can often be persuaded to guide for days at a time because of their love for their art and culture.

prices start at

$8 per person for large bus groups max 50

$400 for private group max 4

 

Our special interest tours have been until recently mostly perceived as private ceremonies and difficult for visitors to access.

Talking Totem Tours offers you a connection to high-caliber First Nation anthropologists, interpretive guides, Aboriginal performers and artists at breath taking destinations in British Columbia.

 

Our tours are designed with activity choices for each location to give you the broadest range of choice; allowing you to personalize your own cultural experience.

Extensive destination and cultural knowledge ensure proper planning has gone in to developing the cultural tours offered.

Please contact us for more information on the Aboriginal Tour Guides we work with.  We do our best to match your destination and preferences, with our experts on cuisine, adventure, sacred sites, wild-life viewing, fishing and traditional knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our authentic tours take you to:

  • the world's oldest house, older than the Egyptian Pyramids and only sacred site open to the public
  • the world's tallest totem pole presently pointing skyward in Victoria BC
  • the worlds thickest totem pole, in Duncan, BC
  • the world's second tallest totem pole in Alert Bay, BC
  • the world's most viewed totem poles, about 8 million visits a year,are in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • the worlds oldest outdoor collection of totem poles on Anthony Island, Ninstints, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC.

Contact us to connect with the high-caliber First Nation anthropologists, interpretive guides, Aboriginal performers and artists we work with at breath taking destinations in British Columbia.

 

 

Through education and sharing you will experience first hand the practice of cultural integrity and access authentic, cultural activities through dance, songs and stories.

 

Expert Aboriginal Guides Available

Talking Totem Tours has put together a collection of high-caliber expert First Nations guides to offer 1 day to 10 day private and group tour step-on guides as you travel through British Columbia.  We are a Canadian Tour Operator Company and work with Aboriginal travel guides in British Columbia.

 

Packages Include:          

  • Guided tours with admissions
  • Earth friendly Bed and Breakfasts, Inn & hotel accommodations
  • Daily breakfast from as much local food supplies as possible

 

Our guides work with the time honored principles that respect both the preservation of the First Nations' culture and the environment.  We provide guided tours to sacred Sites, fishing lodges, public ceremonies, festivals, sporting events, ancient forests and pictograph sites, ensuring both unparalleled levels of cultural expertise with service and quality experiences.


The tours and experts are located in First Nation communities that offer remoteness and raw beauty to places that have remained relatively untouched for thousands of years, except by the people who call these areas their home.

 

Your First Nation guides share their knowledge at world heritage destinations and ancient sites, throughout traditional territories in:

  • West Coast Vancouver Island
  • Northeast Vancouver Island
  • Southeast Vancouver Island
  • Vancouver Coast & Mountains
  • Lower Mainland
  • Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
  • Interior Rockies
  • Northwest Coast
  • Northeast British Columbia

Visitors can explore communities which rarely see a tourist at all, where tourism is harder to access and where community members attend traditional festivals and ceremonies that are open to the public.

Transportation is taken care of by your tour coordinator & First Nations experts.

We offer cultural tours where visitors are able to experience their closest encounters with First Nations people. 

for more information please contact us

 

 

The People in Charge

 

 

 

 

We offer day guides and tour packages to Celebrations, ancient sites and cultural activities.  Whether you're traveling alone, as a couple, or a as a group there is plenty of free time to digest the cultural experience

 

Talking Totem Tours supports traveling responsibly and conscientiously, and provides visitors with travel orientations to protect the environment and nourish its many cultures.

By promoting eco-tourism our priorities are aimed at the preservation of this planet’s natural and cultural treasures. By focusing on the impact of our actions and using respect, travelers can make the right decisions to positively affect the world around them. 

 

In 2004, when the tour operator business launched, the founders were fortunate enough to have  Johnson Murphy, a Member of the Cheam Band (affiliation is Stolo Nation) as the artist of logo. 

The logo he did for us came to him easily as he visioned it. "Being raised by the Fraser River, any travel was done by a canoe.  Totem poles were always transported by canoe, to a place where they were to be put up. They held the story of the Sto:lo, the people of the river."

Johnson's art work is in House of Parliament in Ottawa, and in the United Nations Building in Geneva, as well as in Ireland and Denmark. JFKennedy Jr. also ordered a picture done by Johnson for his collection. His artwork can also be seen in Banff and Calgary.

When Johnson heard about what Talking Totem Tours were doing he pulled in all four directions of the medicine wheel that were to be a part of the business with all aboriginal people. 

In our fifth year of operating we are able to bring Johnson's intuitive vision for Talking Totem Tours alive.  In August 2009 we will be working with the Sto:lo, Squamish, Lil'wat and Sechelt Nation experts to launch a traditional overnight paddle in the Squamish Nation.

 

As part of our commitment to support the First Nations communities and assist in the development of cultural tourism, a portion of revenues are donated to provide micro-funding for cultural businesses and to assist with funding for the events. We believe in investing in the creation of cultural tourism to make a positive difference in the communities where we work and live.

 

TALKING TOTEM TOURS provides educational Aboriginal eco- tours for travellers interested in visiting communities that are having a resurgence of First Nation tradition, language and culture.

Over 20 guided Itineraries covering: First Nation Festivals, sacred village sites, eagle viewing, grizzly bear viewing, whale watching, fishing, wild horse viewing and traditional ceremonies & celebrations. We have a collection of sight-seeing and guided tours across British Columbia.

We work with First Nation tour suppliers and attend cultural events in the Vancouver, Whistler, Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island , Alert Bay, Kootenays, Okanagan and Queen Charlotte Island areas in British Columbia, Canada.

Audry Lochrie 1st started working with First Nations business ventures twelve years ago, when she managed a band-owned tourism centre, She is the owner of the tour operator company and provides consulting services for tourism development.  Her company promotes expert Aboriginal guides and eco-tours to Festivals, Celebrations and Sites ensuring unparalleled levels of authentic representations and service. 

 

Audry has combined her interest in preserving Aboriginal Heritage with her career in tourism to create escorted / guided eco- tours to ensure plenty of visits to her favorite people and places in BC.

If you are interested in finding more out about our services and the people we work with, please contact us