“The KAIROS Blanket Exercise program is a unique, participatory history lesson — developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and educators — that fosters truth, understanding, respect and reconciliation among Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples,” states KAIROS Canada website.
On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 11, at 10 a.m., Shelburne area residents will have the opportunity to take part in the KAIROS Blanket Exercise at the Shelburne Community Centre. The Blanket Exercise is an interactive educational experience that presents more than 500 years of Indigenous history that has seldom been taught.
It was developed by KAIROS Canada in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and has been updated several times since. The Royal Commission recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as a key step to reconciliation, a recommendation that also included the 94 Calls to Action found in the 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Blanket Exercise has been held hundreds of times from coast-to-coast, including on June 2, 2017, when 800 people took part in the largest Blanket Exercise ever in Ottawa on Parliament Hill. It is a powerful teaching tool, engaging participants in a way that increases empathy and understanding. Standing on blankets that represent the land, Blanket Exercise participants take on the roles of the Indigenous peoples of Canada and are guided through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance by facilitators representing a narrator and European colonizers.
Participants give readings from historical and contemporary documents and may also carry cards that will determine their fate. The talking circle that follows provides an opportunity for discussing the experience as a group. Detailed information about the Blanket Exercise can be found on the KAIROS website at www.kairosblanketexercise.org.
The Shelburne Kairos Blanket Exercise is a collaborative project guided by community members, Acadia First Nation Shelburne Office and Shelburne Museums by the Sea. Deb Eisan and Denise John of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre will facilitate the Blanket Exercise and talking circle, which together take about two hours.
The workshop is offered without cost. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Call the Shelburne County Museum at 902-875-3219 or email [email protected].
