The Great Salish Heist: Comedy with a Message of Indigenous Artifact Repatriation

By Liz Braun

Rating: B

The Great Salish Heist is an Indigenous crime caper filmed on Vancouver Island.

The movie concerns something important — the repatriation of stolen Indigenous artifacts — and is brought to life by a terrific ensemble cast led by Darrell Dennis, who also co-wrote and directed.

Despite the serious material, the film is charming and very funny. Dennis plays Indigenous archaeologist Steve Joe, a bit of lost soul who feels tortured by seeing his people’s sacred items in a museum.

Worse yet, the items are about to be shipped off to Europe on loan. With the help of a few friends, Steve decides that stealing the artifacts from the Royal Western Canadian Museum and replacing them with fakes is the best bet for all concerned.

Until the items are in their proper place, Steve feels the ancestors cannot rest and will continue to make trouble for him and the rest of the Moquahat Nation.

Unfortunately, seeing his scheme to the end means getting involved with Russian gangsters.

The group doing the stealing includes Graham Greene, Ashley Callingbull, Taylor Kinequon, Craig Lauzon and Andrea Menard. Also in the cast is cultural archeologist and Cowichan filmmaker Harold Joe, who is also a producer and co-writer of The Great Salish Heist.

The movie has been described as an Indigenous version of Ocean’s Eleven, and that’s apt. There’s a lot of action, clever misdirection, tech derring-do and laughs involved in bypassing a sophisticated anti-theft system and hoodwinking museum security guards. It's all to gain access to sacred objects and put them back where they belong.

Along the way, The Great Salish Heist pokes fun at the usual First Nations stereotypes — noble savage, downtrodden victim — and doesn’t spare the settler characters, either. One character trots out what sounds like a bit of ancient Indigenous wisdom… but it’s a quote from Star Trek.

And the film has a lovely Canadian edge. The Russian gangsters complain about Canada’s “insufferable” gun laws, for example, and poutine plays a role in the robbery scheme.

The Great Salish Heist is proof of the adage that you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Under the easy comedy are serious ideas about cultural identity and the importance of ceremonial and sacred objects being returned to their true home.

Entertaining and enlightening is always a good combo.

The Great Salish Heist. Directed by Darrell Dennis. Written by Darrell Dennis, Leslie D. Bland and Harold Joe. Starring Darrell Dennis, Ashley Callingbull, Graham Greene, Tricia Helfer, and Craig Lauzon.

Opening June 21 in Oakville as part of the Oakville Festivals of Film & Art for National Indigenous Peoples Day and in theatres that day in London, Waterloo, Saskatoon and Victoria.