A pair of local tour guides with history of their own will guide excursions into the past of Howe Sound’s western shore during the month of August, with help from a partnership brokered by the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives.
shíshálh Nation member Candace Campo (xets’emits’a), an anthropologist and entrepreneur, turned her Talaysay Tours company into a full-time venture in 2016. The year before that, Dale Peterson began operating historical walking tours of the Gibsons waterfront. Amid the social distancing regulations of COVID-19, the two collaborated to offer virtual walking tours of the town’s foreshore.
Following a two-year absence due to health challenges, Peterson will return to guiding duties this month. Campo and Peterson’s tours are being promoted as a uniquely cross-cultural double bill by the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives.
“I think because Dale is the son of Lester Peterson, he has a good grasp of Indigenous history,” said Campo. Peterson’s father Lester was the author of acclaimed works of Sunshine Coast history: The Gibsons Landing Story was published in 1962; The Story of the Sechelt Nation was released in 1990. “Meanwhile I was born and raised with history and storytelling,” added Campo. “I think what it provides the visitor or the local is the opportunity to take the tour twice [with different guides], and they’re going to learn new content.”
Their connection goes back generations: when Lester Peterson was researching The Story of the Sechelt Nation, he interviewed Campo’s great-grandmother about her shíshálh cultural knowledge.
Despite the pair’s easy familiarity, the COVID-era virtual tours were a challenge, recalled Peterson. “We both had to cut each of our tours to 45 minutes, which meant we had to really cut a lot out. But we learned stuff from each other. I didn’t know about the Squamish First Nation. She didn’t have some information about settlers. So we sort of taught each other.”
This summer’s tours provide each guide with an opportunity to draw on exclusive experiences and knowledge. Peterson grew up surrounded by the artifacts of early Gibsons — his father had converted the basement of their home into an exhibition space that would ultimately become the Elphinstone Pioneer Museum. (The current museum inherited its collections in 2002.)
“When it was in our basement, it didn’t even have a name,” said Peterson. “People would just open the basement door and wander around and shut it again on their way out.”
The anecdotes that Peterson recounts about the long-running CBC-TV Beachcombers series overlap with Campo’s own lived experience: she was an occasional extra on the program during the 1980s. But a real-life watershed moment occurred for her in 1986, when the chief strode into her classroom and announced that the shíshálh Nation had successfully negotiated its right to self-government.
“We were no longer under the Indian Act,” said Campo. “And I have to say [that news] had a very positive impact on me — and on my aspiration to further my education and to work for my community.”
During Campo’s tours, she begins with prehistory to give visitors an understanding of life before contact with Europeans. Two village sites are located near Gibsons: Ch’ḵw’elhp and Schen̓ḵ. Later, the late 18th and 19th centuries were marked by catastrophic transformation as disease and smallpox epidemics nearly eradicated Indigenous populations. Children attending residential schools were disproportionately affected by tuberculosis and malnutrition.
“So when you look at where our communities are today, both shíshálh and Squamish, we are responding well in population growth and we have young people going to university. It’s a really special story to be told about our history,” said Campo.
Peterson’s tour highlights include the story of former Gibsons resident J.S. Woodsworth, who would go on to found the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (later the NDP). He also recounts recent film productions like the Fox Network series Murder in a Small Town.
A wide-eyed visitor from Arizona recently reacted with surprise to Peterson’s tales. “I thought this was just another small town,” she told him. “She was quite amazed at how much rich history this town has in it,” Peterson said, chuckling.
Dates and prices for the Campo- and Peterson-led walking tours are available at sunshinecoastmuseum.ca.
