Friends of the Whyte is a series celebrating community, featuring Whyte Museum members, donors, staff, and friends, to get to know them a little bit better.
During the summer of 2024, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies had a team of interpreters sharing the history of Banff, engaging with visitors and sharing what The Whyte has to offer.
Let's get to know summer interpreter Brendon Timmins! In this Q&A, we learn more about his experience as an Interpreter.
1. Tell me a little bit about yourself! What brought you to the Whyte Museum interpreter team?
My name is Brendon Timmins and I am from Australia, I originally came to the Rocky Mountains in October 2023 to work as a ski instructor at Norquay. Over time I’ve fallen in love with these mountains and the experiences you can have on them, so I decided to stay and work towards starting a career as a mountain guide with Timberline Alpine Academy.
I decided to apply to the Whyte Museum as it can help with learning how to communicate and interpret information for your tour guests. The Whyte Museum has an abundance of history and knowledge to help supplement my interpretive guiding skills so I decided to learn more about the Bow Valley, its stories and how I can share that with people to help them to have an incredible experience.
I’m here until December 2025, climbing, skiing, and learning as much as I can to help people who visit these mountains to fall in love the same way I did. This learning also involves understanding the Indigenous communities who were long present on this landscape far before white people. Their stories and their relationship to this land is important to recognize and the Whyte Museum provides opportunities to do so. Overall, I decided to join the Whyte Museum as it has helped me to develop important skills and knowledge that I can take forward into guiding later in my life.
2. What new skills, techniques, or knowledge did you gain while working for The Whyte?
I’ve gained a lot of social skills, communication skills and public speaking skills as well as historical knowledge about this area and how to interpret this information for the modern day. Social/communication skills such as knowing when to approach someone to talk vs when to not, how to speak professionally and with a clear voice, group management skills. I’ve learnt a lot about the history and culture of this area, from books such as EJ Hart’s The Place of Bows to Chic Scott’s Pushing the Limits. As well as individual stories about people who have come from somewhere else and made it work here, which struck a chord with me as I’m in a very similar situation. Also, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge talking to people and hearing their life stories, it has helped me to gain some perspective about my own life, as well as what this history means for each individual person.
3. Describe a time that you felt proud during your employment.
I felt proud when I had just finished delivering a walking tour and people were genuinely appreciative of the way I talked and how I presented the information, it made me proud to think I had done the justice of telling the story of these historical people. Mainly I feel proud at the end of day having talked to as many people as I can, showed as much enthusiasm as I can and just learnt something new that day.
4. What is one of your favourite memories of working at The Whyte?
It’s hard to choose one memory out of so many, for me it was when I had memorized all the tours and finally did my first one. I had built up all this anxiety about doing it correctly, speaking clearly and maintaining eye contact but as soon as it was done my first thought was, "That wasn’t so bad." It showed me that all that fear about public speaking, about being afraid to be yourself, was all just in my head. It’s only when I put myself out there, exposing myself to my fears that I could finally come to terms with them. That’s probably my favourite memory, although it happens every time I do a tour.
5. If you could have dinner with one historical Banff figure, who would it be and why?
This is a good question; I could think of some enigmatic figures like Bill Peyto but I think I would go with the Dominion Parks Branch Commissioner J.B Harkin. Mainly because I like his philosophies on parks management which was a line of thinking that to me seemed ahead of its time. I would love to talk about animals, how he would manage the parks and his view on how conservation is being approached now, as well as what kind of struggles he faced, or his personal philosophies on life and nature.
Thanks, Brendon, for your time with the Whyte Museum!
Want to learn more about Canadian Rockies history? Discover our private and public tours at the Whyte Museum this summer. For summer 2025, four public tours will be offered:
Heritage Homes Tour - a 25-minute guided tour of the historic homes of museum founders Peter and Catharine Whyte and notable locals Philip and Pearl (Brewster) Moore.
Gateway to the Rockies Tour - a 25-minute guided museum tour. Learn how the mountains were opened up to all through stories of some of those drawn to these peaks.
Historic Banff Walking Tour - get off the beaten path with a 60-minute guided tour through the Banff townsite, learning about the men and women who helped build and shape the town.
Summer Exhibition Tour - learn more about our upcoming summer exhibition at this guided gallery tour in the Whyte Museum.
Check out our tours page for the most up to date information!
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