[BCMA] New Website Launched by The Reach Unsettles Fraser Valley History

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 29, 2024

New Website Launched by The Reach Unsettles Fraser Valley History

Abbotsford, BC – A truly unique educational resource has been launched by The Reach Gallery Museum in partnership with the Abbotsford School District’s Department of Indigenous Education. Grand Theft Terra Firma turns the dire realities of colonial history in the Fraser Valley into an imaginary video game, encouraging users to consider the other side of the story.

Artists Sandra Shields and David Campion borrowed the title and overarching concept from the immensely popular and controversial videogame series Grand Theft Auto where the key to gaming success is to complete heinous criminal missions. The premise of the new website is a not-so-subtle similarity between the game and settler colonial histories. As the title suggests, Grand Theft Terra Firma appropriates the language of digital gaming to reframe the settlement of Stó:lō Téméxw (now known as the Fraser Valley) as a complex heist conducted by a “gang of greedy thieves.”

Grand Theft Terra Firma made its first appearance in 2017 as an award-winning art exhibition at The Reach and later toured to public galleries across the country. Its appeal with audiences, particularly educators and students, led its creators to consider how it might be shared with a wider audience. With the support from a Canada Council for the Arts grant and input from a knowledgeable range of contributors, including Stó: lō leaders, scholars, artists, and education advisors, the online experience was born.

Combining a deep dive into local historical research with photography, creative text, and video vignettes, the website unfolds as an imaginary gaming guide, complete with a cast of character and power objects necessary for gaming success, and “screen shots” that share key moments in game play. The twist, however, lies in the moral implications of the game’s goals: visitors to the website are asked to step into the villains’ shoes: “Pick your thief and play your part in the crime,” Grand Theft Terra Firma gamers are instructed. “Collect power objects and use your unique talents to complete missions. As you steal the land out from under the Stó:lō, make sure your moral compass never finds true north.” Through its careful and clever reframing, the new digital resource encourages visitors to consider how history can become mythologized in its telling, and supports discussions and classroom activities around historical literacy and decolonization.

The “characters” in the game will be recognizable to anyone who has read a Canadian history textbook. Though they are not named as individuals, they include familiar archetypes like the Royal Engineer, the Settler, the Pioneer, and the Priest. The “power objects” necessary to complete the colonial missions are artifacts from local museum collections photographed by the artists. For example, common objects like a gold pan, a shotgun, and a surveyor’s chain were sourced at regional museums like the BC Farm Museum (Fort Langley) and the Chilliwack Museum and Archives. The “missions” are drawn from significant moments in the region’s colonial history. Composite photographs bring actors in period costume together with Stó:lō friends and neighbours who contributed to the project appearing in contemporary everyday dress, reminding us of the ongoing impact of this shared history.

Visitors to the website encounter their guide and host, Stó:lō, St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux multidisciplinary artist Malō:yhleq Ronnie Dean Harris (aka Ostwelve), who shares knowledge and insights at various moments throughout the gamer’s journey in a format inspired by the popular gaming livestream service Twitch.

The gamification of local history presents an accessible entry point to the brutal historical truths that have shaped the Fraser Valley as we know it today and provides a useful lens not only for students and educators (the site features a robust Educator Guide), but also for everyone who has the privilege to call this region home. Although the resource is historically specific to a one region of BC, the premise is germane to colonial histories across the country and beyond.
The Grand Theft Terra Firma website is now live and can be accessed at  grandtheftterrafirma.com<https://grandtheftterrafirma.com/>.

For more information about programs and events at The Reach Gallery Museum, visit thereach.ca<https://thereach.ca/>.


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Media Contact for Special Projects:
Laura Schneider, Executive Director
Email: lschneider at thereach.ca<mailto:lschneider at thereach.ca>

The Reach Gallery Museum
T: 604-864-8087
32388 Veterans Way
Abbotsford, BC
V2T 0B3


Thumbnail images (high res versions attached separately).


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Stó:lō, St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux multidisciplinary artist Malō:yhleq Ronnie Dean Harris (aka Ostwelve) provides commentary on key moments in Fraser Valley history in the new educational website, Grand Theft Terra Firma.

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A composite photo in the Grand Theft Terra Firma website, this image is inspired by a story told by Leq’á:mel elder Susan Lewis. Courtesy of the artists.

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One of the “gang of greedy thieves” in the educational website, Grand Theft Terra Firma, the Royal Engineer is “the specialist who cracks the safe and opens up the land for profit.” Courtesy of the artists.

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Exhibition visitors at the Grand Theft Terra Firma opening at the Art Gallery of Peterborough in 2019. Photo by Matthew Hayes.




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Exhibition visitors at the Grand Theft Terra Firma opening at the Art Gallery of Peterborough in 2019. Photo by Matthew Hayes.



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Laura Schneider (she/her)
Executive Director
t 604.864.8087 x 125

The Reach is located on Stó:lō Téméxw,
in the unceded territory of the
Semá:th and Mathxwí First Nations.

Hours of  Operation:
Tues, Wed, Fri 10am-5pm
Thursday 10am-8pm
Saturday 12-5pm

The Reach Gallery Museum
32388 Veterans Way
Abbotsford, BC  V2T 0B3
www.thereach.ca<http://www.thereach.ca/>

Follow us on Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/thereachgallery/>
Follow us on Twitter<https://twitter.com/TheReach>
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