The Talking Rocks of Edmonton’s River Valley
The land speaks to a nêhiyaw poet as she travels through time on a walking tour through Edmonton’s River Valley. Plus, six more Indigenous-led nature experiences.
The prairie sun is still high in the sky as I meet Keith Diakiw, a Métis geologist and the founder of Talking Rock Tours, near John Walter Museum in Edmonton’s North Saskatchewan River Valley – the largest stretch of urban parkland in North America. The heritage site, two hewn log cabins and a Victorian-era residence, celebrates one of the first European settlers to live outside Fort Edmonton. But we’re not here to visit the museum.
Diakiw greets me with a woven Métis sash. As he drapes it over my shoulder, he calls me an honorary Michif for the evening. His fourth-great-grandfather, Joseph Ouellette Sr., sacrificed himself in the 1885 Battle of Batoche, the last action of the North-West Resistance led by Louis Riel. He tells me about his relatives’ river lots, his childhood in Hinton, Alberta, where he learned to love mountains and rocks, and how he first started offering tours of the valley, Elk Island National Park, the Canadian Badlands in southern Alberta, Nordegg and Leduc after leaving his nine-to-five in the oil industry.
Now it’s my turn to introduce myself. My matrilineal ancestors are ayisiyiniwak, the original people of this land. These women form an unbroken lineage that leads to me, a nêhiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree woman) and member of the Alexander First Nation, I tell him. Diakiw nods. He understands that my history is woven through the river valley, once a locus of ceremony and trade, and a final resting place for many relatives, including my own.
Illustration: Hawlii Pichette
From a park bench, we look out at the mighty kisiskâciwani-sîpiy, or North Saskatchewan River, where Diakiw guides my gaze to the striations on the tall, craggy banks. Close to the water, a light chalky band runs like a rugged ribbon through the slate gray rock. The layer of ash, Diakiw explains, marks the eruption of the volcano Mount Mazama, in Oregon, around 7,700 years ago. In all the time I have spent in the valley, I did not know one of the largest eruptions in the last 10,000 years of Earth’s history was etched into its landscape.
Our walk takes us around a bend, where we arrive at the Rossdale traditional burial grounds, marked by rusted beams intended to symbolize a mîkiwahp, or teepee. Diakiw asks if I am comfortable with smudging here, and I nod yes. With gentle hands, he creates a sage ball, places it in a shell and lights it. We put our hands in the soft smoke and guide it toward our faces and bodies. Many people who take Diakiw’s tour are not familiar with this protocol, he tells me. It’s a learning they can take home with them.
Across the river, we reach ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞, an art park with six installations depicting the story of Edmonton by Indigenous artists. We pause in front of two large concrete turtles with colourful mosaics on their shells, a piece called Mamohkamatowin (Helping One Another) by the iconic Cree artist Jerry Whitehead. As my eyes follow the tiled motifs on the turtles’ backs, from thunderbirds to Red River carts, I find a new appreciation for wâhkôhtowin (kinship with all living beings), the Cree principle that Diakiw aspires to honour on his tours. Our walk lasted three hours, but we travelled together for thousands of years.
Talking Rock Tours — Edmonton, AB
More Nature-focused Indigenous Experiences
Photo: Roam Creative
Horseback riding
Mountain View County, AB
At Painted Warriors Ranch in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, Tracey Klettl and Tim Mearns share backcountry basics, natural navigation and animal track-spotting tips as you ride along on horseback, or as the Objbwe would say, bimoomigo.
Photo: Jenny Wong
Dogsledding and fishing
Arctic Bay, NU
Snowmobile to the floe edge of Admiralty Inlet at the north end of Baffin Island and hunker down at the Arctic Bay Adventures camp, which serves as your base for dogsledding, fishing, birding and exploring in search of polar bears, seals, narwhal and beluga whales.
Photo: Dolf Vermeulen
Bear and whale spotting
Desolation Sound, BC
Join a half-day boat tour offered by Indigenous-owned Klahoose Wilderness Resort to navigate the pristine waters of Desolation Sound where you can watch for orca and humpback whales in deep waters and black bears and grizzly bears feeding on the shoreline.
Photo: Sprout Marketing
Rowing a 10-person canoe
Gros Morne National Park, NL
Navigate your way through the fjords among peaceful landscapes in a 10-person big canoe with Gros Morne Adventures. Your guide will teach your group to paddle in unison while sharing details about the park’s geology and the history of the canoe along the way.
