Talaysay Campo doesn't fit the stereotype of a cultural guide. A member of the Squamish and Sechelt Nations, she's a Gen Z entrepreneur who models for brands like Lululemon, runs a clothing label called Love the Land and has just launched a skincare line. But put her on a forest trail and she becomes something else entirely: a translator of knowledge that's been passed down for generations.
Campo is the face of We Are the Land, a new Indigenous-led experience developed exclusively for Intrepid Travel's Grand Canadian Rockies trip. The walk follows Whistler's Lost Lake Trail, where she introduces guests to the plants most of us would walk straight past. Skunk cabbage, she explains, was traditionally used as medicine for coughs and wounds. Fireweed, blazing purple against the green, is one of the first species to return after a wildfire — a living symbol of resilience.
What sets the tour apart is how the teachings are governed. Nothing new is added unless community elders approve, and an elder always reviews the cultural protocols and stories behind each tour. That structure matters: this isn't a performance of culture, it's a community-controlled one.
Campo grew up in Sechelt, British Columbia, in a family traditionally known for building and operating fish traps — her people are sometimes called the salmon-cedar people. On the trail she talks about cedars the way you might talk about family: the wood is light enough to weave into hats, baskets and canoes. Even the berry bushes come with rules. Her community leaves the first berries of summer for the animals and never strips the last ones — a lesson borrowed from watching bears, which don't take everything either. What's left goes back into the ground for the next generation.
The walk ends in an open field above the lake with homemade hush tea — a family recipe of raspberry leaf, licorice root, mint and rose hips. It's a small, unhurried finish to a walk that's really about paying attention.
Campo's own ventures carry the same ethos. Her Love the Land apparel label features designs by young Indigenous artists, giving them a professional platform, while her skincare brand THEDA × NENA — named for her mother — uses West Coast cedar and sage from the Okanagan Valley. She's blunt about the pattern she's noticing among travellers her age: they come for the plants and wildlife, but it's the stories that stay with them.
Why does this matter for travellers? Indigenous tourism in Canada is growing fast, and experiences like this one show what good practice looks like: Indigenous-owned, elder-approved, and rooted in a specific place rather than a generic 'cultural experience'. If you're heading to the Rockies and want more than a photo op, this is the kind of tour that changes how you see the landscape — and your place in it.
We Are the Land is bookable now as part of Intrepid's Grand Canadian Rockies adventure, with departures from May 2027.
Story first reported by Intrepid Travel Blog.