KAIROS Blanket Exercise

Hosted by the Lakehead Rotary Indigenous Initiatives Committee

The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is a teaching tool that uses participatory education to raise awareness of the nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada using blankets to represent land.

Participants will take on the role of Indigenous peoples, moving around the land as directed by facilitators.  Maps that represent pre-contact and post-contact Canada will be provided for comparison. 

The exercise is a means of opening the conversation about decolonization between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and deepening understanding of the denial of Indigenous peoples' rights throughout Canadian history.  

The exercise teaches a history of Canada that most people never learn, the impact of federal policies and progranms have, and identify what Indigenous peoples and their allies are doing to bring about positive change.  

The facilitators of this workshop are Ms. Jerri-Lynn Orr, Native Access Program Coordinator, and Mr. Clifford Mushquash, Administrative Assistant in the Indigenous Teacher's Diploma Progam at the Faculty of Education. 

For more information, email ca.mushquash@gmail.com