CANDACE CAMPO   - Bio

Candace, ancestral name xets’emits’a , a member of the Shishalh community, started her company, Talaysay Tours, in 2002.  Trained as an anthropologist and as a school teacher, Candace enjoys providing unique and authentic cultural experiences to students and visitors throughout the world.  Candace shares outdoor education, traditional indigenous knowledge, history and indigenous culture throughout Vancouver and the lower mainland.  Candace is a volunteer with the Jane Goodall Institute Canada Roots and Shoots and travels to Uganda to support an Indigenous Youth Cohort represent JGI Canada and their mandate of protecting the environment through the people, environment and wildlife. Candace is a communications representative for Greenpeace (GP) and and has participated in various campaigns to bring attention to the environmental concerns of fossil fuel extraction and it’s impacts.  In her work, Candace aspires to reach students and the community to understand the interconnection of people, animals and the land.  “We are the land and the land is us”.  Her life dream is to work with her youth and community members to support their reconnection to the land that their ancestors have stewarded and lived on sustainably for thousands of years. 

Candace with her husband Larry own and operate Talaysay Tours and Aboriginal Eco Tours.  We live on the Sunshine Coast and in the Squamish Nation community in West Vancouver and are the proud parents of two adult children Elias and Talaysay.

Richard C. Till – smanit stumish (Mountain Man) has taught land-based learning, search and rescue and youth counselling and training for 30 years.  He has worked within Indigenous communities for over 40 years’ and is an adopted member of the Shishalh people.  Our Shishalh people, in ceremony, have bestowed him with the ancestral name Smanit Stumish, Mountain Man, for his countless years of commitment to many generations of our youth in land-based education and cultural rediscovery.  To bring the highest value to his work with the youth, Richard has spent ages of time with our Elders learning our way of life and cultural teachings.  Richard, a welder by trade is also a boat builder and artist, sculpting three-dimensional art with welding materials.  His primary artistic endeavor at present is his novel.  A historical fiction story of a young British soldier who befriends a Canadian Indigenous solder during WW1.  The story spans three generations formed by this original relationship between two friends from different cultures.  Richard has worked with Candace for 25 years providing land-based education to schools and communities and today these services span 40 schools and organizations nation-wide, including the Jane Goodall Institute, post-secondary institutions, and both the Shishalh and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh communities.  Richard has been a volunteer and manager with Search and Rescue here in BC for over 20 years.