Your Hosts and Professional Interpretive Guides

"Creating authentic and meaningful experiences for residents and visitors."

Island Discovery
& Training
835 Harewood Mines Rd. Nanaimo, BC Canada
V9R 6P3

250-753-5246
email

Your Interpretive Guides:
As professional heritage interpreters and guides, our goal is to present authentic and meaningful opportunities for you to experience our region. Natural and cultural secrets long-buried have been carefully researched and presented in an entertaining way for a "big-picture" understanding. We bring the experiences of Nanaimo residents, homeowners, and married couple. We love to travel and have taken car trips across western Canada and Pacific Northwest. We visited Nanaimo on our honeymoon, fell in love with it, and moved here in 2001.

Donna Hill B.Sc. B.Ed. CHI has been designing and leading interactive interpretive experiences across southwestern BC for over 20 years. ElderHostel, cruise ships, eco tours and school groups in parks and museums have benefited from her interactive presentation style. She is a nationally Certified Heritage Interpreter and started her career as a Tourist Information Counselor during Expo '86 in Vancouver. She trains interpretive guides for museums and nature sites across western Canada. Her specialty is local nature and history.

Bruce Angus B.Sc. has guided tours for many years, is a trained interpreter and adult educator. His interest is in world history and medicinal plants. His insightful views on life and humour are enjoyed by participants.

What is Interpretation?
It is a method of communication that is based on YOUR needs. Your interest in the topic is provoked, the information chosen is relevant to you and significant ideas are revealed. Our goal is to get you to experience everything first-hand when possible so you can make your own discoveries. We take technical ideas and translate them into everyday concepts. That's where the word interpretive comes into play! Everything is carefully chosen to fit a theme, which is relevant to the area, and we avoid what we call "the trivia trail trap" that many guides fall into. We want you to take home your own impression of the region, not a bunch of details you will forget.