So what ARE we Celebrating on this 150th Birthday of Canada?

After having just returned from the Kitchi Blanket Exercise on June 2, on Parliament Hill and having been involved in “blanketing the city of Ottawa” that same morning, in 16 different locations, by presenting the Blanket Exercise, we KAIROS facilitators asked ourselves:
“WHAT are we really celebrating this July 1^st?”

I guess it depends on the lens through which one views the birth of Canada. If we celebrate the British North America Act of 1867, through Indigenous eyes, we are celebrating the resiliency and firm commitment of the Inuit, Metis and First Nations Peoples in Canada, to seek Truth in order to find Reconciliation, as they rightfully strive to have jurisdiction over their lands ….lands which they occupied long before the settlers arrived.

In light of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission findings and the 94 Recommendations, how can we NOT live in the reality of walking with each other as two nations, instead of one?

Reconciliation is in the Wind. Is THIS not what we need to be celebrating and toward which we MUST be moving? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh2Ol48mSmE

The Blanket Exercise is one very effective Teaching Tool that is literally blanketing Canada at this time. It is a movement that is rapidly expanding, sweeping across this land uncovering the TRUTH of our birth. One participant, Heenal Rajani, of the Blanket Exercise expressed his experience of it on April 9, 2001 when he first encountered the harsh truth of our history for the first time. Heenal expressed it in this rap, which is a 6 minute overview of the Blanket Exercise.

https://soundcloud.com/heenal-rajani/kairos-blanket-exercise-poem

After you have heard this rap and read this blog, you are invited to answer the question, Just WHAT ARE we really celebrating?  What do you and I WANT to celebrate in order to bring about Reconciliation?

Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

What is the Blanket Exercise?

I frequently ask myself, how could I have lived almost all of my life in Canada and never became acquainted with neighboring First Nation people or their struggles? A few years ago, I was blessed with a visit to a good friend in the Yukon and came to know some wonderful women, respected elders of their people. They were very warm and I was welcomed into the fold as if I was family, not the non-indigenous stranger that I really was. I am still deeply touched by their total acceptance and kindness. Since that time I have come to learn more about the First Nation people in this country, and I have wept. We need to have our eyes opened to the injustices and struggles of our dear First Nation neighbors.

One way I/we can contribute to building awareness in others is through an historical re-enactment known as the Blanket Exercise. The Blanket Exercise is an experiential learning tool that helps participants understand how the arrival of European settlers impacted the Indigenous people who had lived here long before these colonists arrived. It traces the history of the relationship between them, exploring how and why their relationship was damaged over the years.

The Blanket Exercise is a teaching tool designed to help both Indigenous and non-indigenous groups gain a more truthful knowledge of our early Canadian history (i.e. the history of the relationship between the Indigenous People in Canada and the European settlers). In this interactive workshop, the participants take on the roles of the Indigenous peoples and some Europeans. The narrator guides the group through the story as the roles are mimed. The participants walk around on the blankets, which represent the land. It becomes obvious as the story unravels, that the once friendly and collaborative relationship between the Indigenous and non-indigenous people gradually erodes as the land is taken through broken treaties and laws made by the Europeans.  This is visibly illustrated by the blankets being folded smaller, the participants leaving the blankets because they have been isolated from each other through the Residential school system, or have died off due to the hazardous health conditions to which they were intentionally exposed. This allows all participants (whether indigenous or non-indigenous) to know the reality and the impact of the injustices experienced by native peoples. A discussion session follows.

Awareness of this untold part of our history can hopefully lead to constructive action that will help us build alliances and create the trust necessary to repair this broken relationship. Those of us who are Non-Indigenous can contribute to the ongoing work of reconciliation by establishing and maintaining respectful relationships with our First Nation neighbours. First we must learn how to reconcile our privileges, our education, our judgment and our unfair stereotypes with the harsh reality experienced by Aboriginal peoples. Reconciliation also calls for personal, group, community and political ACTION. Broadening our own awareness and changing the way we educate our children is an important step toward healing our broken relationships. We hope that The Blanket Exercise event can help in a small way to bring this about.

Dara Hartman, CSJ Associate
Karen Rawlings, CSJ Associate

Note: In light of the Truth and Reconciliation Report that came out from the Royal Commission recently, the Blanket Exercise, created by Kairos, http://www.kairoscanada.org/product-category/blanket-exercise has been offered in many cities and towns for anyone who wishes to experience the more accurate historical story of the relationship between the Indigenous People in Canada and European settlers in a creative and experiential learning format. Look for one in your area.

Filling in the Blanks with the Blanket Exercise

Have you ever had the feeling in some interactions that you were not getting “the truth, the whole truth”? This has been the case in the re-telling of our Canadian history, and many are now awakening to the fact of how the truth can “make us free” .

Because there are many “blanks” in Canadian history of the relationship with the Indigenous people of the land, the Blanket Exercise has been devised by KAIROS  http://www.kairoscanada.org/dignity-rights/indigenous-rights/blanket-exercise as a teaching tool for both Indigenous and non-indigenous groups to become aware of the more accurate knowledge of our early Canadian history.

In this interactive workshop, the participants take on the roles of the Indigenous peoples, and some Europeans. The narrator guides the group through the story, as the roles are mimed. The participants walk around on the blankets, which represent the land.

It becomes obvious as the story unravels, that the once friendly and collaborative relationship between the Indigenous and non-indigenous people gradually erodes as the land is taken from the indigenous peoples through broken treaties and laws made by the Europeans.  This is visibly illustrated by the blankets being folded smaller, the participants leaving the blankets because they have been isolated from each other through the Residential school system, or have died off due to the hazardous health conditions to which they were intentionally exposed.

It is a story we would like to put UNDER a blanket, but it is through this very story, once experienced, that there are seeds of possibility planted for real truth and reconciliation to take place.

The participants, whether indigenous or non-indigenous, experience, at a very deep level, the reality of the injustices and the impact of that experience usually leads to constructive action.

The TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf of last June made its several recommendations to the Federal Government.  This broken relationship will not be swept under a blanket. On the contrary, it is by the use of blankets that new life has the potential to emerge as we become empowered to be more knowledgeable and free to be change-makers for a unified and reconciled country.

Kathleen Lichti, CSJ and Priscilla Solomon, CSJ