Grand Theft Terra Firma: Relationships and Cross-Cultural Art Production

Abstract

Artists David Campion and Sandra Shields reflect on the role that relationships with Indigenous people played in shaping their installation Grand Theft Terra Firma which uses digital gaming to reframe the settlement of Canada as a heist perpetuated by the usual cast of colonial characters reimagined as villains. The artists provide a detailed account of the collaborative practice that became the means of co-creating photos with Stó:lō friends and neighbors as ‘actors.’ They share how relationships that grew over many years of time spent together were central to the understanding that became the foundation for the work as well as to the process of conceptualizing and executing the project.