Our Tremendous Beauty: What makes this Indigenous Tourism Strategy unique?

The land, waters and ecosystems that are today known as “Banff National Park” have been a place for gathering, healing, trading and inspiration since time immemorial. All who live or visit here have a role to play in understanding the history and culture of this place. Indigenous tourism is central to the vision for the future of Banff and Lake Louise.

When it came time to build a strategy to support the advancement of Indigenous tourism in Banff and Lake Louise, it was clear this would be no cookie-cutter, box-checking exercise. It would require extensive listening, learning, and relationship-building with many First Nations, and it would mean addressing complexities unique to the world.

“When we first took on this project, we knew it was going to be unique and different from others we’ve done across Canada,” says Greg Hopf, a consultant from Moccasin Trails who created the strategy in partnership with Stormy Lake Consulting. A member of the Dene Nation, Hopf’s work is focused on building healthy meaningful partnership building between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations. Stormy Lake Consulting is an award-winning strategy firm with extensive experience on building Indigenous tourism strategies. Together, the partners have worked on dozens of Indigenous tourism projects across the country.

“This one isn’t unique just because there are many different Nations involved who lay claim to the area,” Hopf says.“What we found so challenging was that there’s a lot of history here – and it’s not all great history. So, we needed to weave it together in a completely new way. We just knew it was going to be both challenging and beautiful at the same time.” 

Unique Place, Unique Approach

Like other places in Canada, there are many Nations with very deep ties to what is today Banff and Lake Louise who have suffered in the face of colonialism for centuries. But here, the situation is uniquely complex, layered and rife with historic conflicts, controversies, and disagreements, as well as the tangled jurisdictional realities of a national park. This place is the ancestral territory of many people, including the Blackfoot Confederacy – Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika – the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, and the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Métis People of Alberta, as well as the unceded territory of the Ktunaxa and Secwépemc.

Hopf says the strategy team tried a handful of times to do what has worked elsewhere – gathering interested Nations together to listen, learn, consult, and support the building of an Indigenous tourism strategy – at the start of this project. Various nations were invited to send representatives to gatherings and roundtables in Banff. But Hopf says it became clear that this sort of approach wasn’t going to work here. Instead, the team decided that to confront the layers of complexity, they needed to go out to the communities.

With this refreshed approach, the team hit the road throughout 2024, visiting Nations in their home communities to gather, listen, and learn stories and experiences about ties to Banff and Lake Louise. A core theme emerged – one of celebrating the complexities as a form of beauty and diversity, instead of a problem.

“We realized that it’s okay that it’s complicated,” Hopf says. “Let’s celebrate each Nation’s uniqueness, their struggles, their stories about this place. Let’s celebrate the complexity as something beautiful – as a tremendous beauty – something we all share.”

"Mouth shut, ears open"

Throughout 2024, the team – which included representatives from Banff & Lake Louise Tourism – visited with six different nations in the lands of Treaty 6, 7, and 8, and the Metis Nation 3. They gathered in community centres to hear stories of the past and listen to ideas about what could be possible in the future through Indigenous tourism in Banff and Lake Louise. (A handful were conducted virtually.)

“I remember being at Tsuutina, and the Starwoman family were all there. They told us about their history in the area, and they thanked us for coming to them for help,” Hopf says.

Hopf says there are often many non-Indigenous people coming in to Indigenous communities to tell them what they can do for them. This approach was different. This, he says, was a chance to listen – “to ask them to tell us what they thought Indigenous tourism should look like here, tell us what your relationship is to the area.” 

“This strategy is only as strong as its contributions,” he says. “It was a mouth shut, ears open approach.”

In the gatherings, the team heard stories dating back centuries – stories of trade, celebrations, gatherings, experiences in Banff and Lake Louise. The through line was that Banff has always been a place of meeting with old friends and forming new relationships, Hopf says.

Each session was slightly different. The Tsuutina shared stories of Elders meeting with coastal nations in Banff – trading fish for sage. Members of the board or Metis Region 3 spoke about coming here for community elk harvesting. Siksika told about the importance of the river crossing at Castle Mountain. Ktunaxa elders shared stories of taking journeys to present-day Banff for celebrating and reconnecting with other nations.

Relationship First

Each community is unique, but it was clear this particular place has always been a gathering place. And so, the newly-released Indigenous Tourism in Banff and Lake Louise strategy is purposefully open to interpretation, which Hopf says is okay. More than a list of actions that can be checked off as done, it’s deliberately slow.

“There is some decolonizing of the process in here that’s significant. Instead of a to-do list, we’re prioritizing relationships. There’s room to breathe. It’s encouraging.”

The stories and learnings are shared now in Our Tremendous Beauty: Indigenous Tourism in Banff and Lake Louise.