I thought I knew Edmonton. I grew up in Alberta and spent six years living in the province’s capital while attending university. But a walking tour with Keith Diakiw of Talking Rock Tours showed me how much I’d overlooked. In downtown Edmonton, he led us to what looked like an ordinary green space beside a bridge, then explained that we were standing on an ancient First Nations burial ground. We removed our shoes and took part in a smudge ceremony, a cleansing ritual designed to clear negative energy and provide wisdom and strength. Diakiw burned sage in an abalone shell, and we let the smoke waft over our bodies. Suddenly, the familiar city felt new.
Diakiw—a proud Métis (a distinct Indigenous group with both First Nations and European ancestry) man who has bachelor’s degrees in anthropology/archaeology, geology, and physical geography—leads tours in Edmonton and other parts of Alberta. His downtown walks explore both the history of the place the Cree call Amiskwacîwâskahikan (“Beaver Hills House”) and the ways geological forces shaped the area. On the tour I attended, we not only visited the burial ground but also listened to Diakiw explain how the Laurentide ice sheet and the glacial lake that covered large areas of Edmonton 12,000 years ago shaped the region’s geography as the glaciers retreated.
“The duality of natural and cultural history is at the heart of what I’m doing with Talking Rock Tours,” Diakiw explains. “My tours combine Indigenous ways of knowing with Western knowledge, and that combination makes the messages stronger.”
His approach is indicative of how artists, chefs, entrepreneurs, and tourism operators throughout Alberta are working to challenge common assumptions about Indigenous tourism.
Talking Rock Tours programs discuss not only Indigenous culture but also the geological factors that formed the North Saskatchewan River and the area around Edmonton.
Photo by Jay R. McDonald
“Travelers sometimes arrive with preconceived expectations of what an Indigenous tourism experience is supposed to look like,” says Maria José, marketing and media relations manager with Indigenous Tourism Alberta. “While there are experiences that focus more on traditional practices, Indigenous culture is a living culture. It is evolving, and Indigenous people are carrying their cultures, knowledge, and connections to the land forward in modern ways.”
Here are a few ways visitors to Alberta can see how the province’s Indigenous people are finding new opportunities to express their identities and shape and share their culture today.
See Indigenous perspectives reflected in galleries and public spaces
Contemporary Indigenous art is a living expression of culture that merges ancestral knowledge with modern media. According to Indigenous oral tradition, Louis Riel, the Métis leader who led two resistance movements before being tried and executed in 1885, once said, “My people will sleep for 100 years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” Today, that spirit is visible throughout Alberta, with Indigenous creativity becoming increasingly visible in the parks, buildings, galleries, and cultural institutions of Edmonton, Calgary, and other cities.
Take Calgary’s award-winning Central Library, a major urban landmark that opened in 2018. When planning the building—a dynamic, modern structure inspired by Chinook cloud arches—library leaders undertook a dedicated Indigenous Placemaking initiative to develop traditional and contemporary spaces that promote understanding of Indigenous peoples and cultures that lie within Treaty Seven territory. One of several notable works by Indigenous artists now at the library is Lionel Peyachew’s Education Is the New Buffalo, a metal sculpture that links words in different Indigenous languages to form a life-size bison, showing how cultural priorities have shifted with the times.
“There was a time when Indigenous people relied on the buffalo for survival,” explains Peyachew, a Cree artist and an associate professor of Indigenous fine arts at the First Nations University of Canada. “Education is as important today as the buffalo once were. It is vital to survival.”
Edmonton, meanwhile, is home to one of my favorite public spaces, the Indigenous art park ᐄᓃᐤ (înîw). Located in Queen Elizabeth Park, it showcases six pieces by contemporary Canadian Indigenous artists, each telling the story of the place, a historic river lot settled by Métis homesteader Joseph MacDonald in 1878. Alberta artist and tattooist Amy Malbeuf’s installation, for instance, represents the Cree word for fire, iskotew, in large-form Cree syllabics. The piece’s palette of light-blue, yellow, and red reflects hues long used in Indigenous art, and the colors may remind some museumgoers of pop art. Additionally, the work draws a connection between iskotew and the word for woman, iskwew, honoring the often-overlooked contributions of Indigenous women to the region’s history.
Emerging artists from Treaty Seven First Nations contributed works to the Cave and Basin Mural Project. The thermal hot springs on the site have been important to Indigenous people for thousands of years.
Photo by Kahli April/© Parks Canada
At Cave and Basin National Historic Site in Banff, a mural project developed in partnership with the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies brings a contemporary edge to Banff’s thermal hot springs, which have long been sacred to Indigenous peoples. Emerging Indigenous artists swathed 10 large cubes with paintings. One example, Makoche Edaha Mini Po (Steam Rises From the Earth), by Stoney Nakoda Nations members Jarron Poucette and Kyle Kaquitts, incorporates bright images of Sleeping Buffalo Mountain (also known as Tunnel Mountain), traditional beadwork patterns, dragonflies, and an eagle feather, reflecting the people’s enduring spiritual connection to the hot springs. The Whyte Museum offers interpretive walking tours of the Cave and Basin site to tell the story of the hot springs through these murals, along with other interactive exhibits and displays.
You can also find contemporary Indigenous art in small galleries across the province. The long-standing Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton displays paintings, stone sculptures, wood carvings, clay works, jewelry, and crafts from prominent First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists. It doesn’t stray from controversy either; instead, it challenges visitors with works such as mixed-media pieces by Jane Ash Poitras that layer historical photos and documents with traditional iconography and modern imagery to critique colonial history, or paintings by Jim Logan that tackle intergenerational trauma and cultural survival.
The Carter-Ryan Gallery, meanwhile, has locations in Canmore and Banff and showcases the bold, joyful work of visual artist Jason Carter, a member of the Little Red River Cree Nation who was the only Alberta artist to have a dedicated solo show at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. His paintings remind me of stained glass—full of vibrant colors and geometric shapes with dark outlines—distilling mountain tableaus down to playful scenes that radiate light and incorporating animals, such as bison and geese, that are important to Cree people. “Contemporary Indigenous art matters because it reminds people that Indigenous culture is not something that exists only in the past,” Carter says. “It is alive, evolving, and very much a part of the world we live in today. For me, it’s about honoring where we come from while telling our own stories, in our own voices, and showing that Indigenous culture continues to grow, change, and thrive.”
Combine Indigenous knowledge with Western science on a guided tour
Zuc’min Guiding tours visit the Athabasca Glacier and other icy sites, sharing knowledge of both the science of mountain landscapes and how Indigenous people have long interacted with those environments.
Courtesy of Indigenous Tourism Alberta
There is a contemporary teaching among Indigenous peoples called Etuaptmumk, or “Two-Eyed Seeing.” Introduced by Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall, the idea is that you can look at the world simultaneously through two eyes—one considering the strengths of Indigenous wisdom, the other employing Western knowledge. This has become a guiding principle for many Indigenous nations and groups, as well as for several Alberta tour operators.
Zuc’min Guiding is one such company. Owner and guide Tim Patterson, a member of the Nicola Indian Band, has a master’s degree in environmental education and many years of experience working with glaciologists. He guides half-day and full-day hiking tours of the Athabasca Glacier and other places in the Canadian Rockies, speaking to the spiritual significance of the mountain ranges for Indigenous people and how they historically used mountain passes for travel and trade. One of his goals is to inspire appreciation for glaciers and convey the way the landscape is shifting due to climate change; another is to use the landscape to foster curiosity about conservation and reconciliation. He shares cultural knowledge that goes beyond pointing out medicinal plants, explaining how and why they were used by Indigenous peoples.
“I combine my academic knowledge with Indigenous knowledge and many years of experience on the ice to help people get a fuller perspective,” Patterson says. “Mountains are a great leveler. People move out of their comfort zones and are better able to cast aside preconceived notions.”
Then there’s the aforementioned Daikiw and Talking Rock Tours, which guides visitors in the Edmonton river valley, Elk Island National Park, and other places in Alberta. I’ve done several of these tours, and I’ve always learned something new about both geology and Métis culture. On one tour, Diakiw explained that Elk Island National Park is in the Beaver Hills, a moraine formed by the meeting of three massive glaciers. The receding of those glaciers left behind a knob-and-kettle topography of hills (knobs) and hollows (kettles). He also explained how the park holds deep historical, cultural, and ecological significance for Indigenous peoples; in particular, the establishment of the park helped bring bison back from the brink of extinction, and visitors can see plains bison and wood bison there today. “Sharing both perspectives,” Diakiw says, “is part of the spirit of treaty and reconciliation.”
Get a taste of Indigenous fine dining
Bernadette’s, chef Scott Iserhoff’s ode to his Cree grandmother, serves Indigenous-inspired cuisine. It is decorated with a mural by artist bb iskwew.
Photo by Shaylon Bourque (L); photo by Roam Creative (R)
Food is one of the most engaging ways to connect with any culture, but Indigenous cuisine is hard to come by. Residential schools took children from their families, preventing the passage of knowledge—including cooking skills—between generations. Today, some Indigenous chefs are rediscovering what was lost while using modern techniques to create unique, delicious dishes that tell stories about the land, family, food sovereignty, and cultural identity.
For instance, Omushkegowuk Cree chef Scott Iserhoff learned to cook from his grandmother (or kokhum) at a young age, and he named his acclaimed downtown Edmonton restaurant, Bernadette’s, in her honor. The menu changes often, but my favorite dish, slow-roasted Saskatoon berry brisket served on house-made bannock, is always available. (Saskatoon berries are a sweet, earthy fruit native to the Canadian prairies that have been harvested by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and bannock has been an Indigenous staple since European contact.) Regardless of what Iserhoff is cooking on a given evening, the food is refined in both flavor and presentation, and the bright, greenery-filled space and friendly staff will make you feel as if you’re in a kokhum’s kitchen.
Stay at an Indigenous cultural center
Métis Crossing is home to a wide variety of cultural programming and to a herd of bison.
Photo by Tristan Talalee
Métis Crossing is located about 68 miles northeast of Edmonton, on historic lots along the North Saskatchewan River that were originally owned by Métis families in the 1800s. The center was designed and built by the Métis Nation of Alberta, which continues to operate it to share the people’s distinct history, language, and stories. There are exhibits, workshops, guided tours, historic buildings, a wildlife park, an Indigenous-inspired restaurant, and comfortable accommodations for overnight stays.
The restaurant marries traditional ingredients with modern influences in dishes such as bison stew with bannock bread and Saskatoon berry crumble. The on-site lodge and sky-watching cabins and domes, meanwhile, combine modern facilities with traditional touches like patchwork quilts and pieces from Métis artisans.
Interpreters at this site share historical accounts as well as insights into present-day Métis culture. For example, Elder Lilyrose Meyers talks about her childhood experiences chopping wood, riding in horse-drawn sleighs, and learning traditional arts and crafts from her mother and grandmother, and about what life is like for modern Métis people.
The center’s new Sage & Spruce Indigenous Spa recently opened a sauna, cold plunge, and massage services. An Infinity Pathway for meditative walks, surrounded by native plants used in Indigenous culture, is slated to open in 2027. It will have dual walking loops—one reflecting European heritage and knowledge, and the other representing Indigenous traditions.
Regardless of the contemporary Indigenous experience you opt for—be it a spa treatment, a meal, a tour, or a gallery visit—you’ll find not merely a window into the past, but a living culture moving into the future.
