Working in a Good Way: The Story Trail to reviving culture

BC Parks photo

The BC Parks Foundation and First Nations connect modern technology and ancient knowledge

As part of this story series, we will feature recreation organizations that are advancing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples through trail and outdoor recreation projects. We hope these stories inspire other community groups to contribute to advancing reconciliation in a meaningful and positive way, thereby ensuring the long-term sustainability of the outdoor recreation activities we love.

Tip: Connect the generations; Revive knowledge; Let them lead

Before Alice Lake became synonymous with a busy campground just north of Squamish and a trailhead to some of the best mountain biking in the area. Before the provincial government protected the lake and the area around it in a provincial park. And even before settlers arrived and logged the forest. Before all that, Alice Lake was a traditional hunting and harvesting grounds for the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh. 

For time immemorial, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people hunted deer, gathered medicine and harvested wild edible plants from the area around what is now known as Alice Lake. In just 150 years their grocery store disappeared.

First, settlers logged the forest. Then residential schools stole the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh knowledge of hunting and harvesting.  Finally, the province protected the area in Alice Lake Provincial Park, effectively outlawing their traditional practices.

“Often there’s been a feeling of displacement, of not being able to do traditional activities within our land,” says Charlene Williams, a citizen of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and a culture teacher at Aya7Auylh Chet, an Indigenous culture program at St’a7mes School. 

The Story Trail is changing that. Teachers and students from the St’a7mes School, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh elders, BC Parks and the BC Parks Foundation have created an interactive and interpretive path through the forest near Alice Lake that revives the communities knowledge and empowers the youth.

“The Story Trail is an opportunity to share our story in a place where visitors from around the world come to recreate,” says Williams. “It shows our culture is a living culture and gaining strength. It’s a perfect example of reconciliation.”

The BC Parks Foundation came up with the idea for the Story Trail. Founded in 2017, the foundation is an independent, charitable partner of BC Parks. It has the flexibility to raise money from donors, sponsors and grants to fund projects, including promoting the mental health benefits of outdoor recreation, organising citizen science projects, funding a junior ranger program and enhancing the visitor experience in parks. That’s where the Story Trail comes in. 

“Many parks have none or out of date signage,” says Kate Le Souef, the director of programs for the foundation. “Most parks don’t have any indication of historic Indigenous use or existence within the park. The idea with Story Trails is to bring interpretation to parks where there is none and introduce the Indigenous presence at the same time.”

But rather than fall back on the traditional, static displays, they wanted to be creative and have First Nations lead the process. 

For the first Story Trail, the foundation partnered with Secwépemc people in Chase, in the province’s interior. Elders taught students from Chase Secondary School’s Secwépemc language class the names and stories of native plants and landscape features in Tsútswecw Provincial Park (formerly known as Roderick Haig-Brown). The foundation recorded the students telling the stories in the Secwépemc language and then linked them to signposts along a park trail, via QR codes. Visitors scan the code with their phone to hear the recordings. 

“It’s an opportunity to create continuity between generations,” says Le Souef. “The youth learn from the elders and then anyone walking the trail learns from youth.”

The Alice Lake Story Trail fits a similar format. The BC Parks Foundation brought in Leigh Joseph, an ethnobotanist and member of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh First Nation, to teach the students about the medicinal plants in the area and how to identify them. Elders taught them about how they picked, processed and used the plants.  

“A lot of traditional teaching goes into harvesting and working with the plants in a respectful way,” says Williams. “Learning about how to do it properly gives the students a deeper respect for the ancestors.”

Along a short trail near Alice Lake the students identified some of the important species and planted others - no small feat in the rocky ground, notes Williams. Then the students recorded the name of the species in English and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, followed by a traditional teaching. On a sign created by Joseph, a QR code links the spot to the recording. (They can also be heard online.)

At one, a small voice identifies the western red cedar, wraps his tongue around the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh word for the important tree and then talks about respect. “When we are respectful during our harvest we are focused and present and that energy goes into the work we are doing,” he says. “When you harvest you are putting a piece of yourself into what you are making.”

“Learning like this allows the kids to develop a sense of who they are and the value of the knowledge ancestors hold, and hid, for so long,” says Matthew Van Oostdam, the cultural journeys teacher at Aya7Ayulh Chet. “That’s what will create the confidence and strength the youth need to grow up in this world and understand their role in it.”

It’s equally important to the greater community, says Williams. She says she receives phone messages and calls from nation citizens after they experienced the trail. 

“They feel pride and joy because it shows the teachings are coming back,” she says. “Seeing how proud the community is helps the kids recognize the importance of what they are doing.”

The school is now developing a curriculum around the trail, so other groups and schools can learn the same information without exhausting knowledge holders. And the BC Parks Foundation is working with several other nations on Story Trails of their own. While the first two were audio-based, Le Souef says there are no rules: they could be art, music, sculpture or even virtual reality.

“The model is designed to be super flexible,” she says. “It’s community-led - as it should be. It’s their story.”

Ryan Stuart started writing about his adventures as a way to get paid to play. Twenty years later he’s still at it. Look for his name in magazines like Outside, Men’s Journal, Ski Canada, online at Hakai and The Narwhal. When he’s not typing at his home office in Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley, you can find him skiing, hiking, mountain biking, surfing, paddling or fishing somewhere nearby.