Abbotsford – Heritage Abbotsford Society announce the launch of a new digital exhibit exploring how successive Indigenous and settler communities shaped—and reshaped—the labour landscape of Abbotsford.
This digital exhibit marks the final installment of the three-part Living with S’ólh Téméxw series. Designed as a chronological, interactive timeline, it highlights the experiences and contributions of diverse communities through a labour history lens. “This project was designed to keep growing,” explains Lead Curator Sara Bremner. “As new research emerges and as communities share more of their stories, the exhibit will continue to expand. It’s not a static history—it’s a living one, shaped by the people who call Abbotsford home.”
The development of the exhibit represents the work of 11 contract researchers engaged over a three-year period. In 2025 alone, each researcher contributed an average of 80 hours of paid research time toward shaping the final content. Their collective efforts illuminate the shifting roles that different groups have played in building the Abbotsford of today.
The exhibition traces how communities entered and exited key labour sectors over time—sometimes displacing earlier groups, sometimes being displaced themselves. While these dynamics reflect broader patterns seen throughout Canada, they hold particular relevance in Abbotsford, one of the country’s most culturally diverse municipalities. “It helps us see how communities shaped Abbotsford—and how they were shaped by it,” says Bremner. “It’s a living history of labour, resilience, and the complicated ways people share a place.”
The exhibit also situates these histories within the experiences of Indigenous peoples, whose labour contributions continued even as they faced cultural genocide—a theme introduced in the 2021 exhibit The River People and the Land: Living within S’ólh Téméxw.
The exhibit launches on December 19th, 2025 and can be viewed here: https://www.hasexhibit.ca
